The Lebanese Armed Forces have been deployed heavily in the north of the country to prevent potential conflict and after thousands of fleeing Syrian Alawites crossed the border, reigniting tension, security sources told The National on Wednesday.
More than 10,000 members of the Alawite minority, fleeing sectarian violence in Syria, have crossed into Lebanon in recent days and settled in northern areas. The situation has heightened tension and raised fears of past conflicts.
Lebanon now fears sectarian violence from Syria’s coast could once again spill over into its volatile north, particularly in the adjacent Bab Al Tebbaneh and Jabal Mohsen districts of Tripoli, where Sunni and Alawite gunmen have engaged in deadly clashes several times over the past 15 years.
About 1,380 civilians, the vast majority of them Alawites, were killed in a wave of violence that gripped Syria's Mediterranean coast, according to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitor. Since the rebels took control in December, there have been violent campaigns on Syria's west coast, with reports of killings targeting members of the minority group, as well as casualties among security forces. The latest attack began last week after two members of pro-government forces were killed in an ambush.
“Lebanese security forces are heavily deployed in Tripoli and surrounding areas,” one security source said, where they are "heavily focused on preventing conflict". He added: “There is growing fear that the situation could spiral out of control but security forces have so far managed to maintain calm and prevent any alarming clashes.”
Tripoli is home to 200,000 people, 80 per cent of whom are Sunni Muslims, 6 per cent to 7 per cent Alawites and the rest Christians. Residents of Bab Al Tebbaneh supported the uprising against former Syrian president Bashar Al Assad, while those in Jabal Mohsen backed him. The two factions have frequently clashed since the Syrian civil war erupted in March 2011.
Small radical Sunni groups in Lebanon have also sent fighters across the border to join the rebels.
The collapse of Syria's army in December has flooded the region with firearms, allowing Lebanese gun dealers to profit by buying cheap weapons and smuggling them into Lebanon. According to security sources, the price of an AK-47, for example, was about $25. Thousands of weapons have been smuggled through illegal border crossings, particularly in the north.
As the rebels appeared poised to take control of Damascus, Lebanon immediately closed all its land border crossings with Syria, except for the main one linking Beirut to the Syrian capital. However, many illegal border crossings, especially in the north, have remained open.
Lebanon has long struggled with the widespread presence of firearms and weaponry. The ruling establishment, which has governed since the civil war (1975–1990), remains heavily armed. Among the dominant groups is Hezbollah, which fought a prolonged and devastating war with Israel that ended last November following a US-brokered ceasefire.
Current and former officials from the Tripoli area are set to meet on Friday to discuss ways to ease tension and prevent further conflict, the sources said.
Innotech Profile
Date started: 2013
Founder/CEO: Othman Al Mandhari
Based: Muscat, Oman
Sector: Additive manufacturing, 3D printing technologies
Size: 15 full-time employees
Stage: Seed stage and seeking Series A round of financing
Investors: Oman Technology Fund from 2017 to 2019, exited through an agreement with a new investor to secure new funding that it under negotiation right now.
Countdown to Zero exhibition will show how disease can be beaten
Countdown to Zero: Defeating Disease, an international multimedia exhibition created by the American Museum of National History in collaboration with The Carter Center, will open in Abu Dhabi a month before Reaching the Last Mile.
Opening on October 15 and running until November 15, the free exhibition opens at The Galleria mall on Al Maryah Island, and has already been seen at the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum in Atlanta, the American Museum of Natural History in New York, and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
F1 The Movie
Starring: Brad Pitt, Damson Idris, Kerry Condon, Javier Bardem
Director: Joseph Kosinski
Rating: 4/5
The alternatives
• Founded in 2014, Telr is a payment aggregator and gateway with an office in Silicon Oasis. It’s e-commerce entry plan costs Dh349 monthly (plus VAT). QR codes direct customers to an online payment page and merchants can generate payments through messaging apps.
• Business Bay’s Pallapay claims 40,000-plus active merchants who can invoice customers and receive payment by card. Fees range from 1.99 per cent plus Dh1 per transaction depending on payment method and location, such as online or via UAE mobile.
• Tap started in May 2013 in Kuwait, allowing Middle East businesses to bill, accept, receive and make payments online “easier, faster and smoother” via goSell and goCollect. It supports more than 10,000 merchants. Monthly fees range from US$65-100, plus card charges of 2.75-3.75 per cent and Dh1.2 per sale.
• 2checkout’s “all-in-one payment gateway and merchant account” accepts payments in 200-plus markets for 2.4-3.9 per cent, plus a Dh1.2-Dh1.8 currency conversion charge. The US provider processes online shop and mobile transactions and has 17,000-plus active digital commerce users.
• PayPal is probably the best-known online goods payment method - usually used for eBay purchases - but can be used to receive funds, providing everyone’s signed up. Costs from 2.9 per cent plus Dh1.2 per transaction.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
KILLING OF QASSEM SULEIMANI
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Pharaoh's curse
British aristocrat Lord Carnarvon, who funded the expedition to find the Tutankhamun tomb, died in a Cairo hotel four months after the crypt was opened.
He had been in poor health for many years after a car crash, and a mosquito bite made worse by a shaving cut led to blood poisoning and pneumonia.
Reports at the time said Lord Carnarvon suffered from “pain as the inflammation affected the nasal passages and eyes”.
Decades later, scientists contended he had died of aspergillosis after inhaling spores of the fungus aspergillus in the tomb, which can lie dormant for months. The fact several others who entered were also found dead withiin a short time led to the myth of the curse.
