BACKCONTRY RISK. Syrian soldiers fired at a group of one Swiss and three Lebanese backcountry skiers along the mountainous border on Monday, wounding one, after they mistook them for smugglers, Lebanese security sources said.

Snow covers Mount Hermon or Jabal al-Sheikh (background) and the Bekaa Valley (bottom) as seen from the Faraya ski resort, northeast of Beirut. In previous shootings across the border into Lebanon, Syrian forces have said they were targeting armed rebels and people crossing illegally into the strife-torn country. (AFP Photo/Patrick Baz)

The group of four were skiing on Mount Hermon in Lebanon's east when one of the Lebanese men, Antoine Hajj, was shot in the shoulder, they said. He was transported by the Lebanese Red Cross to a nearby hospital in Rashaya.

Lebanese skier Antoine al-Hajj, who is shot in his shoulder, is treated by medics at a hospital in Rashaya village in the Bekaa valley, April 30, 2012. Lebanese security sources said on Monday that Syrian soldiers had fired at a group of one Swiss and three Lebanese skiers along the mountainous border after they mistook them for smugglers, wounding one. The group of four were skiing on Mount Herman in Lebanon's east when they were fired upon, according to security officials. (REUTERS/ Shawki Haj)

"Once they came under fire from the Syrian army post, the skiers started screaming to them to hold fire," the security source said on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak to the press.

The Syrian border guards then entered Lebanon, he said, and told the skiers that they could leave. They then walked for four hours to the nearest Lebanese security post, he added.

The Syrian army has at times entered Lebanon briefly and clashed with rebels hiding in the porous border region.

Mount Hermon on the Lebanese-Syrian frontier also borders the edge of the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

(Reuters, AFP, Al-Akhbar, The Daily Star :: Lebanon)
Published Monday, April 30, 2012

Ski slopes in Lebanon overlooking Beirut and the Mediterranean sea. One person was wounded when a group of skiers on Mount Hermon in southeast Lebanon came under machinegun fire from across the border with Syria on Monday, a security official said. (AFP Photo/Patrick Baz)

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