Report: 13 French officers captured in Syria
Lebanese media says Western troops already present in embattled Homs despite UN Security Council's reluctance. Paris denies report
The UN Security Council has yet to decide on an official military campaign in Syria, but according to the Beirut media, it is possible some western forces have already been deployed on the ground
The Lebanon-based Daily Star reported Monday that 13 French Soldiers have been captured by Syrian forces.
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According to London's Daily Telegraph, however, the French Foreign Ministry dismissed the report, insisting that "not a single French soldier is on Syrian soil."
A French Foreign Ministry spokesman said: "We deny the idea that there are French troops on the ground in Syria. A Defense Ministry spokesman added: "We have no information on this. We neither confirm nor deny it."
According to various reports in the British media, the Daily Star cited a Damascus-based Pro-Syrian Palestinian source as saying that the supposed French captives were being held in a field hospital in Homs.
The Daily Star's source further claimed that Paris and Damascus are in the midst of negotiations to free the soldiers.
Damascus offered no comment on the possibility of western troops' presence on Syrian soil.
NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said in January that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization had no intention of intervening in the country as it did with Libya.
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