A few tents and trucks dotting a green hill across the river are about all that is visible of a Syrian troop deployment on Lebanon's northern border – a buildup that has raised concerns of a possible Syrian incursion. There was no sign Wednesday that the Syrian troops were preparing to cross the border. Syria says the deployment – first made public several weeks ago – is aimed at preventing smuggling from Lebanon. But the United States and some anti-Syrian politicians in Beirut have warned that Syria could attempt an incursion, a concern raised especially after a Sept. 27 car bombing in Damascus killed 17 people. In Washington, Deputy State Department spokesman Robert Wood on Monday said, “Any intervention by Syrian troops into Lebanon would be unacceptable.” Syria's government has said the Damascus bombers were militants who entered from another country, though it did not specify which. Syrian President Bashar Assad had warned days earlier that militants were setting up base in northern Lebanon and that they could threaten Syrian security. Two days after the Damascus blast, suspected militants bombed a bus carrying Lebanese soldiers in the northern port city of Tripoli, killing seven people – the second such attack against the Lebanese military. But there was no immediate sign of a connection to the Damascus bombing, although also militants are suspected. The head of the anti-Syrian bloc in parliament, Saad Hariri, rejected Assad's claims of militants operating in northern Lebanon, saying the accusations and the Syrian deployment were part of a “series of intimidations against Lebanon.” Hadi Hobeish, a lawmaker allied to Hariri representing the Akkar region bordering Syria, accused Damascus of “attempting to give the excuse that there are extremists in the north to return to Lebanon.”
