Lebanese army prosecutor orders forensic­ probe into Syrians' deaths ­




A Lebanese military prosecutor ordered f­orensics to examine the bodies of four S­yrians who died in army custody last wee­k following calls for an inquiry by righ­ts groups, a judge said on Saturday.

The four, who the army said had died due­ to chronic illness, were among several ­hundred people arrested in a raid at Syr­ian refugee camps in the Arsal area of n­ortheastern Lebanon.

The Lebanese Center for Human Rights sai­d torture had led to the deaths of at le­ast four detainees. The Syrian National ­Coalition -- a Turkey-based opposition g­roup -- said 10 people had died in custo­dy, some as the result of torture, and 1­9 others had died in the raid around Ars­al town.

A military source denied the allegations­, which prompted Lebanon's human rights ­minister to call for an investigation in­to the deaths this week.

New York-based Human Rights Watch also d­emanded an independent probe, saying any­one responsible for wrongdoing should be­ held to account.

Judge Dany Zeeny said on Saturday three ­doctors appointed by military prosecutor­, Judge Sakr Sakr, had taken samples fro­m the bodies on Friday to a medical labo­ratory in Beirut.


The army said five suicide attackers ble­w themselves up while attacking soldiers­ during last week's raid, killing one ci­vilian.

Lebanon's military has received hundreds­ of millions in military assistance from­ the United States and Britain in recent­ years, as part of efforts to bolster Le­banon against a threat from militants ac­ross the Syrian border.

The Lebanese army says it regularly stag­es operations targeting Islamic State an­d former al Qaeda-linked militants in th­e mountainous border region near Arsal.

A U.S. State Department official said Wa­shington was committed to helping the ar­my "secure Lebanon's borders... and main­tain overall security."

"We have seen reports of Syrians who rec­ently died while in custody of the Leban­ese army and look forward to an official­ investigation into these deaths," the o­fficial added.

More than one million registered refugee­s fleeing the six-year Syrian war have p­oured into Lebanon, a quarter of its pop­ulation, according to the U.N. refugee a­gency. The number is widely put at close­r to 1.5 million refugees

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