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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran | ||
| Northern Lebanon Burning | ||
| 2013-03-29 | ||
By Michael J. Totten
The Syrian civil war is spilling into the city of Tripoli, the second largest in Lebanon. Sunni Muslims in the poor neighborhood of Bab al-Tabbaneh are at war with an Alawite militia in the adjacent hilltop neighborhood of Jebel Mohsen that supports Bashar al-Assad's regime. Last week there was even a shootout at a hospital, of all places. So far this is hardly original. What makes this conflict absurdly unusual is that segments of the Lebanese army are protecting both militias, and they're doing so on behalf of a foreign government--Syria's. I drove up there from Beirut to meet with Mosbah Ahdab, a political liberal who was a member of the anti-Syrian "March 14" bloc of Lebanon's parliament until a deal was struck to get rid of him after Hezbollah's invasion of Beirut in 2008.
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| Posted by:trailing wife |