Neighbors in Lebanon fight Syrian proxy war
TRIPOLI, Lebanon — In a rundown district of Lebanon’s second-largest city, residents have adapted to waging war with their neighbors.
Whenever violence breaks out, they string large cloths across intersections to block snipers’ view, sleep in hallways to take cover from mortar shells and abandon apartments close to the front line.
Sectarian fighting between the two Tripoli neighborhoods, Bab Tabbaneh and Jabal Mohsen, goes back several decades, but these days it’s a proxy battle of the rival sides in Syria. Bab Tabbaneh is largely Sunni Muslim, like Syria’s rebels, while most people in Jabal Mohsen are Alawites, or followers of an offshoot of Shiite Islam, like Syrian President Bashar Assad.
The fighting between them has intensified since the start of the Syrian conflict more than two years ago. The latest round over the past week has been the bloodiest yet, leaving at least 28 dead and more than 200 wounded.
The escalating conflict in Tripoli is just one of the signs that the Syrian fighting is increasingly spilling over into Lebanon, which is home to a fragile mosaic of more than a dozen religious and ethnic groups.
Gunmen from rival religious sects have also gone to Syria to fight on opposite sides there.
Over the weekend, Lebanon’s Shiite militia Hezbollah, which has been fighting alongside Assad’s forces, said it would do battle until victory over Syria’s rebels. On Sunday, two rockets struck Hezbollah strongholds in Beirut, in apparent retaliation for Hezbollah’s support of Assad.
In Bab Tabbaneh, many say they are caught in the proxy war between the region’s Sunni and Shiite powers; Shiitedominated Iran backs Assad, while influential Sunni state Saudi Arabia supports the rebels.
“Their problems are being played out here,” said Bab Tabbaneh resident Mohammed Bukhari, 53.
Bukhari’s second-floor apartment faces Jabal Mohsen, just a few dozen yards away. On May 19, when fighting broke out again, Bukhari moved with his wife, five children and two grandchildren into an empty apartment facing away from Jabal Mohsen.
“My own apartment is very dangerous,” he said, pointing to bullet holes in a wooden cabinet and an interior door.
Many leave for safer areas during the fighting.
Those who remain behind try to cope. They’ve strung large sheets of tarpaulin across streets that are otherwise exposed to snipers from Jabal Mohsen, blocking their aim.
One family, near the Bukharis, climbs out a second-floor back window and down a ladder to reach the street because the front entrance faces the front line.
The fighters offered a range of reasons for shooting at their neighbors, from defending their district to taking revenge for previous bloodshed or letting off steam against Assad and Hezbollah.
But beyond inflicting as much pain as possible on the other side, there seemed to be no clear objective to the fighting.