Journalist killed by gunfire at Lebanese-Syrian border

Security officials says a Lebanese journalist has been killed by gunfire along the Lebanese-Syrian border.

Ali Shaaban, a cameraman for the Al Jadeed television station, was filming in Lebanon's northern Wadi Khaled area when a bullet pierced his chest, Lebanese security officials said. The gunfire came from the nearby Syrian village of Armouta, the officials said.

Mr Shaaban, who was born in 1980, died on the way to the hospital.

His colleague, reporter Hussein Khreis, said the team heard heavy gunfire around them from all sides "falling like rain". Mr Shaaban was inside a car when he was struck, Mr Khreis said.

"If you see the car you would think it was in a war zone," Mr Khreis said on Al Jadeed TV. "It is completely destroyed from the bullets."

He said they waited for more than two hours for the army and some residents to come and pull them out to safety.

"I ask forgiveness from Ali's family because I couldn't do anything for him," he said, breaking into tears.

AP