Sleiman warns of bids to drag Lebanon into Syria war

Lebanese President Michel Sleiman has described a series of recent attacks against Lebanese border villages as an attempt to draw the country into the Syrian crisis, urging Syria-based rival insurgent groups to refrain from targeting the country “under any pretext.”
“The rocket attack on the border town of Brital and the air raids on Arsal are additional ways to entice Lebanon and the Lebanese to get involved [in the Syrian crisis],” Sleiman said on Friday, as quoted by his office.
The Lebanese president further stated that “it was not permissible or acceptable for innocent Lebanese in various areas to pay the price with their lives and properties.”
He also called on rival militant factions in neighboring Syria to refrain from targeting Lebanon under any excuse and pleaded with the Lebanese not to get involved in the crisis “based on the Baabda Declaration and disassociating Lebanon from the conflicts of others.”
A Friday rocket attack from Syria struck several buildings in Brital while a suspected Syrian air strike killed a child and a teenager on the outskirts of the northeastern town of Arsal, near a refugee center.
The rocket attack on Brital, which is considered a Hezbollah stronghold, was claimed by the al-Qaeda-linked Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) terrorist group, which declared that it targeted the Hezbollah resistance movement.