Lebanese army tortures Syrian refugees, similar to Syrian counterpart

BEIRUT ( Zaman Al Wasl)- Zaman Al Wasl has met with number of Syrian refugees who were arrested with other 450 last weeks by Lebanese Army after storming their makeshifts in border town of Arsal.

The refugees said they had been through savage arrest conditions combined with daily torture in ways similar to Syrian regime’s security chambers.

Activists and Human rights groups have condemned the blind eye of Lebanese government over the repeated assaults which reflect in some aspects sectarian acts and reprisals by soldiers loyal to the Shiite militia of Hezbollah which is fighting alongside with Syrian forces.

Lebanese army had justified killing of refugees and arresting them on September 25 by searching for suspected militants at refugee camps in Arsal.

A Syrian refugee who withheld his name over fears of reprisal said the Lebanese army threatened the refugees to not disclose what had happened during their arrest; otherwise they will be arrested again and delivered to Syrian regime.

The fierce campaign against Syrian refugees comes as Syrian rebels led by Nusra Front have been inflicting humiliating defeats on Hezbollah in Qalamoun.

Nusra has been holding 20 Lebanese soldiers as captives since last month. The negotiations to free them have deadlocked.

Lebanon, host to more than 1.3 million refugees, the highest number out of Syria’s neighboring countries, has enforced more stringent security checks on Syrian refugees to curb incidents of violence spilling over from the raging conflict next door, according to The Daily Star.

The U.N. says more than 190,000 people have been killed since the start of Syria's uprising against President Bashar Assad in March 2011.

(Editing by Anwar Diab)