Street vendors and shops in a street in Tripoli. (Credit: Sandrine Frem)
Tensions erupted Thursday evening at the government hospital in Tripoli after reports circulated on WhatsApp groups that a patient at the facility might be a Syrian officer linked to the former regime of Bashar al-Assad.
According to information from L'Orient Today's correspondent, the man was identified as a former Alawite officer hospitalized for some time due to a gunshot wound. The specifics of the messages exchanged, in a town under strain following recent massacres along the Syrian coast, went so far as to state the room number where the patient was.
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Tensions in Tripoli: Security plan implementation, political meeting at Mikati's residence
A group of youths from Bab al-Tebbaneh, a predominantly Sunni Neighborhood in Tripoli, and Qibbeh, went to the scene and checked his papers. They reportedly found a military service card dated 2016.
Intervention of the Lebanese Army
When the situation escalated, the Lebanese Army and intelligence services intervened, imposing a security cordon inside the hospital. Access to the room of the alleged Syrian officer, who resided in Tripoli, was blocked and the room was sealed.
Contacted by L'Orient Today, the city's governmental hospital was not reachable for further details on this incident.
The massacres on the eastern Syrian coast, carried out by members of the new Syrian security forces, mostly derived from the now-dissolved former jihadist rebel groups, resulted in the deaths of nearly 1,400 Alawite civilians, the religion of the deposed president. They also reignited tensions in Tripoli, where Syrians fleeing the killings took refuge. The city was regularly shaken by conflicts related to the Syrian war and now by recent developments in Syria, particularly between the Alawites of the Jabal Mohsen neighborhood and the Sunni residents of Bab al-Tebbaneh.
In light of these tensions, the new interior minister, security forces and local authorities implemented another security plan for the city, coinciding with the start of Ramadan, yet were unable to prevent the shootings that have claimed several lives over the past two weeks.
Former Prime Minister Najib Mikati, a native of Tripoli, held a meeting at his residence earlier in the day with local officials to relaunch discussions on “security and social issues.”
A week earlier, a similar meeting was held at his home, bringing together several political and religious figures. Discussions focused on “the repercussions in Lebanon of the situation in Syria” and the need for Syrian refugees to return home.