SHEBAA, Lebanon: As security concerns mount, gunmen are increasingly taking law and order into their own hands in the Western Bekaa region and the neighboring areas of Hasbaya, Rashaya and Arqoub in southeast Lebanon.
The growing phenomenon has heightened fears that the region might be bracing itself for a confrontation with Islamist militants similar to what happened in the Bekaa Valley town of Arsal in August.Such fears have been enhanced by the Lebanese Army’s decision to sever supply lines to ISIS and Nusra Front militants holed up in the rugged outskirts of Arsal following five days of fierce fighting with troops that resulted in the death of 19 soldiers and the capture of more than 30 servicemen by the militants. The militants are still holding 27 soldiers and policemen hostage.
Faced with the Army’s tough siege, the militants might resort to opening up a new front in the south, particularly at Mount Hermon (Jabal al-Sheikh) on the Lebanese-Syrian border along the edge of the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, in a desperate bid to secure a new supply route.
Though areas located near Mount Hermon have generally been calm, residents are increasingly concerned that violence could spill over into Lebanese territory from the other side of the Syrian border.
Although rumors about the presence of gunmen from the Nusra Front and the rebel Free Syrian Army in Hasbaya and Rashaya al-Wadi have not been confirmed, gunmen belonging to a pro-Syrian regime Lebanese party are seen roaming the streets enforcing security.
As the war in Syria, now in its third year, rages on with no end in sight, the number of Syrian refugees in Shebaa and Arqoub villages keep swelling, putting a strain on the local population. For instance, in the village of Kfar Shuba, there are 170 Syrian families, nearly equaling the number of the estimated 1,500 local residents.
Residents and political movements in these villages have voiced fears that Hezbollah and the Syrian regime might push the situation in the Arqoub-Shebaa region, known for its Sunni-Druze mix, into “another Arsal episode.” Fears of strife prompted Druze leader MP Walid Jumblatt to tour these areas earlier this month and meet with mayors and local leaders in an attempt to avoid sectarian violence in the region.
A recent incident heightened tension in the region. Some youths wrote a slogan supporting ISIS on the walls in Hasbaya: “The Islamic State is coming.”
Investigations by security forces found out that the youths belonged to the Syrian Social Nationalist Party. Contacts by party leaders, notables and security chiefs contained the reverberations of the incident.
In the villages of Ain Ata, Aiha and Rashaya al-Wadi on the edge of Mount Hermon there are no patrols by the Lebanese Army at open border checkpoints because Lebanese and Syrian territories overlap in a no-man’s land at Mount Hermon’s exits.
On hills overlooking Mount Hermon’s exits, a number of youths carrying guns roam the area with the aim of protecting it from Syrian opposition gunmen and defectors from the Syrian Army stationed over the border, as well as preventing the smuggling of arms across to the rebels.
A number of gunmen contended that their presence in Mount Hermon was designed to protect the residents after Druze villages in Syria witnessed fierce battles between the Free Syrian Army and local groups that left many people dead and wounded.
In Ain Ata, gunmen roam the streets under the name of local groups under the eyes of the Army and security forces. One of the gunmen, who refused to be named, said that they counted on partisansin Shebaa to inform them beforehand about suspicious cars or people driving vans so that they can be pursued. “We are helping the state and we don’t want to replace it,” he said.
Following the Arsal fighting and the proliferation of unofficial checkpoints in villages in the northern Bekaa region, the phenomenon of informal security has surfaced in other Lebanese areas, replacing or supplementing the Lebanese state’s security and military institutions.
Despite the threat of militants haunting the region, a security source told The Daily Star that so far there have been no cases of people belonging to ISIS in the western and central Bekaa regions or the Arqoub-Hasbaya region.
However, the source warned that the situation in the region was not reassuring “because ISIS, taking advantage of the prevailing sectarian tension and the crackdown on Syrian refugees, can recruit scores of people to establish a foothold in these areas.”
“The conditions of the refugees are horrible. Unless the state draws up a plan to accommodate the refugees in camps under its supervision and administration, this situation might prompt some of the refugees to become militants as a reaction to the persecution to which they are subjected,” the source said.
Mohammad Jirar, a social activist who heads a medical center in Shebaa, denied that any Syrian rebels had entered the town to carry out subversive acts. He said probably some members of the Free Syrian Army might enter Shebaa as civilians to visit their refugee families.
But a senior official in a Lebanese party that is fighting in Syria alongside the regime accused the Arqoub villages of “providing takfiri groups with a hospitable environment.”
“The terrorist Nusra Front and the Free [Syrian] Army are today like the South Lebanon Army [SLA] of [Israeli] agent Saad Haddad [in south Lebanon]. This is how Israel wanted these groups to play a separation role between it [Israel] and the Syrian regime. In exchange for securing Israel’s border in the south, Israel will provide them with arms and ammunition to establish a buffer zone,” he said.
However, a source in the Syrian opposition said the aim of creating tension in the Shebaa area and nearby villages is to rein in the rebels’ advance in pro-regime Druze villages.
“The Damascus battle has become very imminent. That is why they are trying to disperse the opposition forces on more than one front following reports that 5,000 soldiers from the Free [Syrian] Army have completed their training in Jordan,” the source said.
He added that the primary aim of these soldiers is to direct the “decisive battle” for Damascus and capture it.
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