Senior Lebanese officials expressed grave concern on Tuesday after neighboring Syria began massing troops along the border over the weekend.

According to a leading Lebanese newspaper, more than 10,000 Syrian troops have deployed to the northern section of the Lebanese-Syrian border since Saturday.

Damascus claims the troop build-up is part of a new effort to combat smuggling along the porous border.

But a retired Lebanese general noted that combatting smuggling is usually the job of customs agents and police, not army brigades.

Many fear that Syria's true intent is to use regular flare-ups of sectarian violence in Lebanon as justification to reoccupy its neighbor.

Syria militarily controlled Lebanon from 1976 until 2005, when the so-called "Cedar Revolution" forced Damascus to finally comply with UN resolutions for its to withdraw its forces.