Two Lebanese men were killed Monday in a mine blast in Syria, where they had planned to join the fight against the regime, security sources told AFP.
The men from the Lebanese border town of Arsal were headed to Qara, a rebel-held Syrian town near the frontier where loyalist troops have launched a major offensive in recent days.
"Yussef al-Hojairi and Khaled al-Hojairi were killed in the explosion of a mine before they reached the town of Qara," the source told AFP on condition of anonymity. It was not clear if the men were related.
The source said the two men were headed to Qara to fight alongside rebel forces engaged in fierce clashes with regime troops reportedly backed by Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah.
An Arsal elder, speaking on condition of anonymity, said "around 30 young men from Arsal have left with their weapons in recent hours to go and fight alongside the Free Syrian Army."
In recent days, the Syrian regime has waged a major offensive against the town of Qara, with multiple airstrikes forcing thousands to flee.
The Lebanese social affairs ministry said 1,700 Syrian families, most of them from Qara, had fled across the border to Arsal since Friday, and declared a state of emergency.
Arsal has a long shared border with Syria, stretching along much of Damascus province and part of Homs province.
Smugglers have long taken their goods across the porous border, and since the beginning of the Syrian conflict in March 2011, weapons and fighters have moved across the border too.
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