QAA, Lebanon — Syria has accepted a peace plan by U.N. envoy Kofi Annan that includes a cease-fire by the Syrian government, but the bloodshed persisted Tuesday as intense clashes between government troops and rebels spilled across the border into Lebanon, officials said.
Syrian troops did not physically cross the border, according to two Lebanese security officials, but bullets whizzed across the frontier into a rural, sparsely populated area around the Lebanese village of Qaa.
“There is no Syrian military presence on the Lebanese side of the border,” the military official said.
The U.N. says more than 8,000 people have been killed in Syria’s uprising, which began last March with mostly peaceful protests against the regime. But the government swiftly unleashed its military tanks, snipers and machine-guns to break up protests, which many opposition members say drove them to take up arms.
Now, as the conflict spirals toward civil war, there are concerns that the violence could cause a regional conflagration by pulling in neighboring countries.
A diplomatic push to end the crisis has largely failed, but Ahmad Fawzi, a spokesman for Annan, said Tuesday that the Syrian government has accepted the envoy’s six-point plan to end the bloodshed. The plan includes a cease-fire and inclusive talks about a political solution.
Syrian opposition members reacted with skepticism, however.
Rami Jarah, who was attending an opposition meeting Tuesday in Turkey, said President Bashar Assad is trying to stall for time.
“The Syrian government is going to depend on propaganda as it has over the past few months — propaganda of armed terrorists,” he said. The government denies that there is a popular uprising in the country, saying the revolt is being driven by terrorists.