RAYHANIEH/BIREH, Lebanon: Sitting in the floor of the garage she calls home, Hikmat described a growing sense of fear among Syrians living in Akkar, Lebanon’s most northern district.
“We are afraid the Lebanese might attack Syrians,” she said.
“I’m worried about the Army raids,” added her soft-spoken son-in-law Abdel-Jabbar, who has been living in the Akkar village of Bireh for more than two years.
At Bireh’s finely furnished town hall, former Mayor Mohammad Wehbe is also concerned. Over the past month, militants have twice attacked Army positions in his village. In the most recent attack, a soldier was killed.
While the perpetrators remain unknown, the conclusion is foregone for some locals.
“A Lebanese person could never do something like that,” Wehbe said, suggesting that Syrian refugees were probably responsible. “There are many Syrians here. A lot of them are good ... But some of them are not good and belong to organizations that are against the Lebanese Army.”
Amid a fragile security situation in north Lebanon, there is a mounting sense of mutual distrust between local and refugee populations. Refugees say they are worried about reprisals and being unfairly targeted by the Army, which carries out raids after every attack. Locals interviewed by The Daily Star, many of whom have brothers or sons in the Army, say their security problems are purely down to the 100,000 or so Syrian refugees scattered across the impoverished region.
Tensions have been further amplified following four days of fierce fighting between the Army and Islamist militants that broke out in Tripoli and other northern areas over the weekend and left 11 soldiers dead.
“The truth is we are afraid of the recent developments,” said Abu Hisham, who helps manage a Syrian refugee camp in Minyeh.
While he said no Syrians in his camp had been arrested in the recent security sweeps or had fallen victim to reprisal attacks, refugees in the area still feel threatened by the deteriorating security situation.
“There is fear,” he said.
Abu Ziad, a refugee in the Minyeh camp, said he was especially worried about revenge attacks: “A Lebanese man told me that [soon] Lebanese people will attack every Syrian in the street.”
Among their Lebanese neighbors, the concerns are strikingly similar – but mirrored.
Mustafa Wehbe, mayor of Bhenin in the qada of Minyeh-Dinnieh, said that locals were concerned that some of the 5,000 Syrian refugees in the village were fomenting strife in north Lebanon. Four Army soldiers were ambushed in Bhenin during the recent clashes, and a number of cars rigged with explosive devices were uncovered.
“We are constantly worried that refugees in Bhenin could do something illegal,” Wehbe said. “But the municipality can’t impose security by itself. That is the role of the Army, may God protect them.”
Attacks on the Army in recent weeks have, quite literally, hit close to home for many Akkar residents. The military is both a major source of employment for young men hailing from the region and the glue that unites this rural, multi-confessional district.
“It’s normal to love the Army here,” Mohammad Youssef Issa said from his home in the Alawite village of Rayhanieh in Minyeh-Dinnieh.
Issa’s newlywed son, soldier Milad Mohammad Issa, was killed Oct. 9 when an unknown gunman attacked him as he left for work at dawn.
While the family respectfully refuses to speculate as to the perpetrators of the crime, the unspoken verdict is that Syrians were responsible.
“There were no problems before the refugees,” snarled Khodor, a relative of the deceased.
According to UNHCR data, Rayhanieh hosts fewer than 200 refugees. Still the presence of strangers is acutely felt in the village of 2,000.
In Bireh, situated on a hillside within spitting distance of Syria, the numbers are even starker. The village of approximately 13,000 is hosting at least 4,300 extra people who have fled the more than 3-year-old civil war next door.
“I am worried about the huge number of refugees,” said former Mayor Wehbe. While stressing that only a full investigation would determine who was behind the attacks on the Army positions, Wehbe said the government was ultimately to blame, even if it did not pull the trigger.
“I blame the government, because it has mismanaged the refugee crisis,” he said.
“When they started coming, they were disorganized,” he added, saying it made him uneasy that he didn’t know now who was living in Bireh.
“Most of them have guns,” speculated Sarah, a Bireh resident. “Our government should check on this.”
But refugees like Safa say Syrians are being collectively accused of the recent crimes.
“We are being blamed for what is happening,” she said, adding that they too were worried about their Lebanese neighbors belonging to ISIS or other extremist groups.
The Army has recently raided several refuge encampments and residences in north Lebanon, searching for those responsible for attacking security forces. Scores have been arrested, and some weapons have been confiscated.
But while much of the crackdown has been a success, many refugees reported being arrested on flimsy grounds and, after extensive and sometimes rough questioning, being released several days later.
“I spent four days in jail, I don’t know why,” said Issam, a refugee in a camp near Tripoli.
“They didn’t talk to me, they just said I was with Daesh [ISIS] and slapped me,” he said. “I was released after I got my papers.” – Additional reporting by Edy Semaan and Ghinwa Obeid
