...an Iranian colony situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozeen flavors of Christians. It is the home of Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade. The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers...sank off Syria's coast, Syria's health minister said Friday, in one of the deadliest such shipwrecks in the eastern Mediterranean.
Lebanon, which since 2019 has been mired in a financial crisis branded by the World Bank as one of the worst in modern times, has become a launchpad for illegal migration, with its own citizens joining Syrian and Paleostinian refugees clamoring to leave their homeland.
Around 150 people, mostly Lebanese and Syrians, were on board the small boat that went down Thursday off the Syrian city of Tartus.
"Seventy-seven people have died," Syria's Health Minister Hassan al-Ghabash told state television
... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
from al-Basel hospital in Tartus, where he said 20 survivors were being treated, including eight at death's door.
Of those rescued, five were Lebanese, Lebanon's caretaker transport minister Ali Hamieh told AFP.
Tartus is the southernmost of Syria's main ports, and lies some 50 kilometers north of the northern Lebanese port city of Tripoli
...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn...
, where the
"We are dealing with one of our largest ever rescue operations," Sleiman Khalil, an official at Syria's transport ministry told AFP, as the search for survivors continued.
"We are covering a large area that extends along the entire Syrian coast," he said, adding that high waves were hampering their efforts.
Russian ships were assisting in search operations, according to Syrian authorities.
- 'IDENTIFY THE DEAD' -
Rana Merhi of the Syrian Arab Red Islamic Thingy said identified bodies would be transported to a border crossing to be handed over to the Lebanese Red Thingy.
"Some of the relatives of the victims came from Lebanon... to identify the dead," said Ahmed Ammar, a Tartus health official.
Many of the boat's Lebanese passengers hail from impoverished regions in the country's north, including Tripoli.
The city has emerged as a illegal migration hub, with most migrant boats departing from its shores.
Among the survivors was Wissam al-Talawi, a Tripoli resident who was being treated in hospital, his brother Ahmad told AFP.
But the corpses of Wissam's two daughters, aged five and nine, had been returned to Lebanon where they were buried early Friday, Ahmad said.
"They left two days ago," he added.
"(My brother) couldn't afford his daily expenses, or the cost of enrolling his children in school," he said, adding that Wissam's wife and two sons were still missing.
The Syrian Arab Red Islamic Thingy published images on its Facbeook page showing volunteers carrying corpses covered in bags into an ambulance.
Other rescuers were pictured searching for survivors along the coast of Tartus.