Syrian forces shoot Lebanese camerman Ali Shaaban dead on Lebanese soil, according to al-Jadeed television
A Lebanese man rides his motorbike on March 28 in the area of Joura, only a few meters from the place where the Syrian government forces clashed with Syrian rebel troops near the al-Qaa area of the Bekaa valley on the Syrian-Lebanese border.
Amid increasing reports that violence in Syria’s year-old uprising is spilling into neighboring countries, a Lebanese television channel today accused Syrian government troops of shooting dead a cameraman on Lebanese soil.
Reuters reported that Al-Jadeed television today said cameraman Ali Shaaban was on Lebanese soil when he was shot by Syrian government forces.
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The station said Shaaban was in the Wadi Khaled region when Syrian troops opened fire carrying him with an al-Jadeed crew, according to Reuters. A colleague, Hussein Khreiss, said the crew had explained to the Syrians that they were journalists before the shooting began.
"We told our Syrian brothers … that we are not military … but they opened fire heavily on the car," Khreiss was quoted as saying on the channel's website, according to Reuters.
"Ali Shaaban became a martyr after the Syrian army opened fire on the al-Jadeed car," the channel said, according to the Agence France-Presse news agency.
Lebanese residents along the border in the Bakaa valley said in March that Syrian forces had crossed into Lebanon in pursuit of Syrian rebels and that there had been reports of cross-border shooting or shelling which have left people in Lebanon wounded.
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The Committee to Project Journalists alleges that Syrian authorities were responsible for at least five of the eight deaths of reporters recorded since the Syrian uprising began a year ago.