Syrian Fighting Gives Hezbollah New Purpose
Ben Hubbard of the New York Times reports from Hermel that Hezbollah, having successfully joined forces with the Syrian army in chasing rebel factions from the border, is “enjoying the gratitude of the country’s Shiites and luring a new wave of aspiring young fighters to [its] training camps.
“While the civil war in Syria remains a grinding battle of attrition, for Hezbollah more than a year of combat has produced a new sense of purpose that extends beyond battling Israel to supporting its allies and Shiite brethren across the Middle East. And although its victories have come at a great cost in lives and resources, it has also gained the rare opportunity to display its military mettle and earn new battlefield experience.
“The fighting in Syria could change the entire balance in the region, and Hezbollah has intervened to prevent the formation of a new balance of power against it and against Iran and its allies,” Talal Atrissi, a Lebanese analyst close to the movement, tells Hubbard.
Sick and Injured Refugees Being Forced to Return Home
The Telegraph reports that U.N. fundraising for Syrian refugees in Lebanon “has fallen short by more than $1 billion and the sick and injured are being forced to return home for want of medical treatment.”
In a new report, Amnesty International says many of Lebanon’s 1 million Syrian refugees lacked access to medical care.
“Hospital treatment and more specialised care for Syrian refugees in Lebanon is woefully insufficient, with the situation exacerbated by a massive shortage of international funding,” Audrey Gaughran, an Amnesty director, tells the paper.
The Amnesty report “highlights cases of a refugee having to cross the border to return to Syria for kidney dialysis twice a week because she could not afford it in Lebanon, and a 12-year-old boy whose burned legs swelled and became septic for lack of treatment. Health care in Lebanon is largely private and expensive, with most Syrians poorer than their host community. The United Nations High Commission for refugees is supposed to fill the gap, but due to lack of funding has had to restrict access and to charge most who qualify a quarter of the fees.”
Aleppo Rebel Commander Calls Carlton Bombing a Morale Boost
Martin Chulov of the Guardian reports from Aleppo on rebel commander Abu Assad, the city’s “most wanted man.” Abu Assad (no relation to the ruling family) commands Aleppo’s tunnel forces, the group responsible for this month’s bombing of the once-luxe Carlton Citadel Hotel, which had been transformed into a Syrian army base.
He tells the paper that the attack, which hit a long-entrenched military position in the west of the city, provided a significant and much-needed morale boost to rebel fighters.
The giant explosion, well-documented on photo and video, “rumbled well beyond the nine miles between the bomb site and where the commander now sat recalling that day,” Chulov writes. “Its destructive force sent shock waves through the well-dug-in Syrian military command in the city’s until-then impregnable west, and jolted to life an opposition whose war had been going badly.”
Abu Assad tells the paper that its documentation and visibility “was one of the best things about the operation. The effect on morale was immediate. Ever since, the men have wanted to fight more than before. We have called this Operation Aleppo Earthquake.”
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