Hundreds of armed jihadists enter Syria

Hundreds of well-armed jihadists have entered Syria through the borders with Jordan, as another 15, 000 are poised to head to Syria after finishing special training in Lebanon, Syria's pro-government al-Watan newspaper said Sunday. Hundreds of jihadists equipped with light and medium machine guns, anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapons as well as four-wheel drive vehicles have entered Syria from Jordan through the southern province of Daraa, al-Watan said. "Thus, Jordan has succumbed to the United States and Gulf States' pressure to become, like Lebanon and Turkey, a passage to the jihadists into Syria," the paper said. Meanwhile, the paper said that about 15,000 jihadists have finished their training in northern Lebanon and are poised to head to Syria. A day earlier, the Syrian army reinforced its posts on the border with Lebanon, namely all along the downstream of the Nahr Al Kabir area which separates Lebanon from Syria. Damascus announced Thursday that its forces would fire into Lebanon if "terrorist gangs" continued to infiltrate into Syria. "During the past 36 hours, armed terrorist gangs have infiltrated into the Syrian territory in large numbers from Lebanon," said a letter sent by Syria's Foreign Ministry to its Lebanese counterpart. "Syrian forces are showing restraint by not striking these gangs inside Lebanese territory to prevent them from crossing into Syria, but this will not go on indefinitely," the ministry added. Lebanese President Michel Suleiman said Saturday that Lebanon's stability depends "on all of us ... not sending militants to Syria and not receiving them," adding that "we must commit ourselves to neutrality." Suleiman said he had tasked Lebanon's army with "the arrest of any militants intending to fight in Syria, whether for the opposition or not." The report came at a time when Britain and France were pushing for lifting an arm embargo on Syrian rebels to tilt the balance in the fight against the government troops. On Saturday, the Syrian parliament sent three identical messages to the chairman of the European Parliament, the chairman of the National French Society, and the head of the British Common Council, protesting against the French and the British governments ' attempts to legitimize arming the armed groups.