FILE PHOTO: Smokes rises from the Qaboun area during clashes between the Syrian Free Army and Syrian army forces in Damascus October 10, 2012.Omar Khani/Reuters
Gunmen attacked a bus transporting Syrian workers at the Lebanon border on Thursday, killing eight passengers and wounding another eight, Syrian state television said.
"An armed terrorist group attacked at dawn a bus carrying Syrian workers from Lebanon a few minutes after it crossed the Arida border post into Syrian territory," the report said.
One of the wounded men, quoted by state news agency SANA, said that "around 2:00 a.m. two cars stopped our bus after it passed through the Arida border crossing and drove us to a farm."
"The terrorists tied our hands and blindfolded us and we were beaten and insulted just because we do not support the 'revolutionaries of Aleppo'," he said, referring to Syria's second city and scene of a drawn-out battle between regime troops and rebels.
Another injured man said the gunmen stole the passengers' identity papers and money before herding them back onto the bus and opening fire.
The regime uses the term "armed terrorists" for rebels ranged against President Bashar al-Assad in Syria's civil war.