Warlords of Tripoli
The war in Syria is having a knock on effect on neighboring Lebanon, with disorder and chaos taking over the country, and nowhere is this impact felt more than in Tripoli. Sunni militants aligned with the Syrian rebels frequently clash with fighters from the city’s encircled Alawite minority, who support the Assad regime, in bitter street fighting the country’s weak government is powerless to stop. The situation has given rise to warlords like Sunni commander Ziad Allouki, who details in this doc why he and his fighters are bringing the country to the brink of civil war. it’s grim viewing.
Watch Parts 2 to 5 below.
You can hear a celebratory gunfight as you come into the center of the city. Local Sunnis are celebrating the return of a prominent Sunni militia commander after months in exile.
It’s Eid al-Adha, the festival of sacrifice, one of the most important holidays in the Muslim calendar.
In Tripoli the celebrations are unusually muted. No one has any money and everyone’s dreading the outbreak of major clashes between the Sunnis and Alawites.
With legislation no longer existent in Tripoli, warlords like Sunni commander Ziad Allouki are now the city’s real kings.
Tensions between the two neighborhoods are higher than ever before. Even the smallest incident can spiral out of control, petting the two communities against each other in street battle.
Just one street, ironically called Syria Street, separates the two warring communities.
The war in Syria is pushing bordering Lebanon on the verge of the endless-war-horror-pit, and nowhere is the increasing anarchy more obvious than in the second city of Tripoli.
The country’s weak administration is obviously unable to stop this hostile street fighting.
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