Gunmen assassinated a well-known media defender of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Lebanon yesterday, as Syria’s civil war steadily infects its smaller neighbour.

The conflict is also spilling over Syria’s northern border, where Turkish troops returned fire after stray bullets from Syria struck the police headquarters and several homes in the Turkish border town of Ceylanpinar, the Turkish military said.

Turkish troops return fire after two civilians killed

In Lebanon, Mohammad Darra Jamo, a commentator for Syrian state media who often appeared on Arab TV channels to promote Assad’s cause, was killed by gunmen at his home in Sarafand.

It was the first assassination of a pro-Assad figure in Lebanon since the Syrian revolt began 28 months ago and follows several attacks in recent weeks against the Lebanese Shi’ite Hizbollah group, which is now fighting for Assad in Syria.

Lebanon, whose own 15-year civil war ended in 1990, is struggling to stay on the sidelines of the conflict next door.