Yet another cursed summer for Lebanon

Beirut, Lebanon – “We are cursed, we live
from bloodshed to bloodshed. One war ends, another starts. We live in
constant fear of the unknown,” says Lebanese graphic designer Sarah
Salameh, 34.

Lebanon is in panic mode again after a
string of bomb attacks, security alerts and three days of deadly
battles pitching the army against a tiny Islamist militia in a squalid
Palestinian refugee camp.

Beirut
has become a virtual ghost town. Shops and cafes are deserted and many
schools closed. Mobile phones are being bombarded with text messages
from insurance and private security companies.

The bloodiest peacetime fighting since the 1975-1990 civil war has
sent jitters through people already worn down by conflict, political

crises and dire economic difficulties, and created a new headache for
the embattled government. “Every morning, we don’t know if we will have
war or peace, or if we will go to school, work, the nightclub, the
hospital or the morgue,” said Salameh.

In Beirut, many fearful residents remained indoors after the third
bomb attack in four days and vows by the government to “eradicate
terrorism” and crush the Islamist extremist group Fatah Al Islam holed
up in northern Lebanon.

The latest bloodshed has shaken the security of a country still
bearing the scars of its own civil conflict, Israeli wars and
entrenched sectarian and political divisions.

Lebanon has been divided into pro- and anti-Syrian camps since a
series of murders, including the 2005 killing of former billionaire
premier Rafiq Hariri, were blamed on former power broker Syria.

The ruling majority in multi-confessional Lebanon has pointed the
finger for the latest violence on Damascus, saying the Al Qaeda
inspired Fatah Al Islam is an agent of Syrian security services. But
Syria, along with its allies in the Lebanese opposition, retorted that
the unrest was aimed at stirring public opinion against it ahead of an
expected UN decision to create an international trial for Hariri’s
murder.

“There seem to be no easy or quick solutions to the crises in
Lebanon. The government’s role in the next phase will be to try to
manage crisis after crisis,” political analyst Michael Young said. “The
problem is mainly two fold: the tribunal for Syria is an existential
threat and there is also the problem of Syria’s role and influence in
Lebanon,” he said.

“There is apparently no solution in the short term, unless there is
a breakthrough” in Washington’s problems with Syria and its top
regional ally Iran-locked in its own standoff with the West over its
nuclear drive.

Since
the fighting between Fatah Al Islam and the army erupted on Sunday,
Beirut has virtually turned into a ghost town at night, and traffic has
been slow during the day when shops, although open, have remained
largely deserted. Many families have fled to the mountains around
Beirut, others have stayed home but avoided public places.

Widely-circulated emails-although with no valid sourcing or
credibility-have called on residents to “restrict their movements” and
avoid popular shopping malls and nightlife destinations. Many schools
closed earlier this week, and those still open have reported large
absences, sometimes in the hundreds.

Panic
has also further spread with a number of bomb scares across the
capital, where residents alert armed security forces which then cordon
off the area to dismantle the devices … or find no bomb at all.
“People have become very vigilant, we are receiving alerts about
suspicious vehicles, suitcases and boxes everywhere,” a security
official said.

Source: Peninsula
Via:Ya Libnan