(Zaman Al Wasl)- The Syrian camps in the town of Arsal witnessed in the last weeks of 2016 a wave of assassinations and kidnapping which activists are describing as planned and pre-meditated. This wave began by targeting the Syrian medical staff working in the town to take a new form as persons said to be working in aid and relief work in the town were kidnapped in broad daylight.
Doctor Hani al-Masri, 56, a specialist cardiologist and a refugee from the area of al-Qasir, was shot several time as he got out of his car to enter the al-Salam Medical Center where he works at 8 am in the morning. The Al-Salam Center focuses on treating Syrian refugees in Arsal and it is located in the town’s main square. Three masked men on motorbikes surprised al-Masri as he left his car shooting at him before they fled the scene. Al-Masri miraculously survived the attack as the gunshot wounds were in his legs.
According to eye witnesses who spoke to Zaman al-Wasl’s reporter in the area, the day after the attack on Doctor al-Masri a similar attack was perpetrated against another doctor. Doctor Bassem Qalih, the manager of the al-Rahma hospital in Arsal, was shot at by masked men riding on motorbikes as he entered his house. Qalih, dentist from the city of Qarah in al-Qalamoun, survived the attack as the bullets hit his car.
Soon after these events, Assem al-Kanij, the manager of the Medical Commission in Arsal was shot at in a similar assassination attempt. According to al-Kanij’s neighbors, masked men on motorbikes drove past al-Kanij’s house shooting at the house with military rifles before fleeing. Al-Kanij was not hit in the attack.
The same period witnessed several kidnappings of Syrian refugees in Arsal. Those kidnapped were activists working in the aid and service sector. Abu Jafar Bakour, the head of al-Za’im refugee camp was kidnapped by four men riding a black jeep. Witnesses described the men as “trained,” and they drove Bakour, from the area of al-Qasir, to unknown destination.
Zaman al-Wasl reporter indicated that the same scenario was repeated but with kidnappers used different cars. Another jeep was driven in a raid on a second hand clothes shop in the center of the town. The four men in the car kidnapped Abu Khalid Ghanoum and his associates, forcing them into the car and driving off to an unknown destination, according to eye witnesses who were close to the shop at the time. Other sources said Ghanoum is being held in a Lebanese state prison.
The youth Haythem Fadah and his friends from the town of Bakhah in al-Qalamoun were kidnapped as they got into their car in the Ras al-Sarj area in Arsal. The witness Abu Abdou al-Qasrawi stated that a jeep car without number plates intercepted Fadah’s car and forced them out of their car and into the jeep using military rifles.
Zaman al-Wasl’s reporter indicated that the residents of the Syrian camps in Arsal are experiencing a state of panic and terror due to the recent attempted assassinations and kidnappings. Many residents fear leaving their houses or visiting people, and many do not move around alone or at night. The wave of terror has even reached elementary students with some refusing to go to school for fear they would be kidnapped or shot at by unknown actors.
Around 100,000 Syrian refugees live in the town of Arsal which is split by different political, party and regional allegiances. The town has turned in a ghost town in the absence of any actor able to preserve the peace and secure the area. With all these recent incidents, Syrian refugees in the area have no doubt that the sole benefactors from all these incidents, the sedition, and almost daily crimes are the Hezbollah militia agents in the town.
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