Wadi Khaled is a small village in northern Lebanon, near the border with Syria. The director Christophe Karabakh told in an independent film the lives of its inhabitants, mostly Bedouins, on the margins of Lebanese society. Among the inhabitants of Wadi Khaled and those of Tell Khalakh, Syria, there are strong family ties, far from being erased by a border inherited from the end of the French mandate over Syria and Lebanon after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire at the end of First World War.
Therefore natural for the inhabitants of Tell Khalakh find refuge across the border when the army and police have entered the city to stop the protests against the Syrian regime. The last refugees seem to be able to cross the border yesterday, despite the Syrian forces have opened fire and killed a woman, Syrian, while trying to cross the border.
According to some news agencies, would be at least ten thousand citizens Syrian refugees in Lebanon since the beginning of repression, now more than two months ago. In addition to the woman killed yesterday, five people were injured, including a Lebanese soldier was hit, apparently by shots coming from the Syrian side of the border.
Tell A Khalakh, meanwhile, the iron fist of Bashar Assad has killed at least seven people. According to the pan-Arab broadcaster Al Jazeera, Syrian forces are hitting the town with mortars and artillery and tanks are around the town. Syrian troops entered at Tell Khalakh (20,000 inhabitants) on Saturday morning after the anti-regime protests on Friday and immediately tried to block the escape route to Lebanon, which is just five kilometers.
Despite the cordon set up by the army of Damascus, at least two thousand people have managed to overcome the Kabir river, which marks the border. Those who manage to overcome it, tells of a very tight siege, with left dead in the streets and dozens of people wounded by snipers. Some refugees have arrived in Lebanon people bring with head injuries.
The fate of refugees, however, is far from rosy. According to the guide to local witnesses, taken by the international press during the last hours of Lebanese soldiers and agents of security services in the country of the cedars were rounded up refugees from Syria to send them back across the border.
Around Wadi Khaled are already operating several checkpoints where cars are stopped suspicious, to prevent refugees from leaving the area and seek refuge in other Lebanese cities starting from the nearby Tripoli on the Mediterranean coast. According to Lebanese intelligence sources cited by the British newspaper The Guardian, the Damascus government would exercise "enormous pressure" on Beirut (where he currently lacks a government) to ensure that refugees are welcome.
Also, coming from the Lebanese border WOULD BE weapons to opposition groups in Syria, with the risk of turning the anti-regime protest in a civil war, ethnic and religious connotations. For Lebanon would be the worst case scenario, because given the political and historical ties between the two countries, a possible explosion in Syria could easily infect the fragile mosaic of Lebanon, with completely unpredictable results.
Tripoli, northern Lebanon's main city and the country's second city, it hosts a large minority Alawite - such as the Assad family - in a strong Sunni majority, in favor of the coalition led by former Lebanese Prime Minister Hariri, who has never made any secret of his hostility to Syria.
Hariri and his entourage have openly accused Damascus of being behind the attack on 15 February 2005 claimed the lives of Rafiq Hariri, Lebanese Prime Minister and father of Saad. The Syrian regime has repeatedly accused "external training" to fuel the protests of citizens. The charge could be related to its Lebanese Sunni groups eager to see the collapse of the Assad regime.
The Syrian president, however, does not seem intimidated either by the new international sanctions or condemnation from the items that now come from all over the world. Indeed. According to some sites of intelligence, Damascus is preparing even the entry of some army units into Lebanon to remove the rear support to the demonstrators on which date they could count.
A desperate move, however, could have disastrous consequences, especially after, caught by surprise by the protests on Sunday for the 15 anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba, the Israeli government has ordered the reinforcement of the garrisons on the northern edge of Israel and the Golan Heights Golan.
Joseph Zarlingo Letter 22 
Therefore natural for the inhabitants of Tell Khalakh find refuge across the border when the army and police have entered the city to stop the protests against the Syrian regime. The last refugees seem to be able to cross the border yesterday, despite the Syrian forces have opened fire and killed a woman, Syrian, while trying to cross the border.
According to some news agencies, would be at least ten thousand citizens Syrian refugees in Lebanon since the beginning of repression, now more than two months ago. In addition to the woman killed yesterday, five people were injured, including a Lebanese soldier was hit, apparently by shots coming from the Syrian side of the border.
Tell A Khalakh, meanwhile, the iron fist of Bashar Assad has killed at least seven people. According to the pan-Arab broadcaster Al Jazeera, Syrian forces are hitting the town with mortars and artillery and tanks are around the town. Syrian troops entered at Tell Khalakh (20,000 inhabitants) on Saturday morning after the anti-regime protests on Friday and immediately tried to block the escape route to Lebanon, which is just five kilometers.
Despite the cordon set up by the army of Damascus, at least two thousand people have managed to overcome the Kabir river, which marks the border. Those who manage to overcome it, tells of a very tight siege, with left dead in the streets and dozens of people wounded by snipers. Some refugees have arrived in Lebanon people bring with head injuries.
The fate of refugees, however, is far from rosy. According to the guide to local witnesses, taken by the international press during the last hours of Lebanese soldiers and agents of security services in the country of the cedars were rounded up refugees from Syria to send them back across the border.
Around Wadi Khaled are already operating several checkpoints where cars are stopped suspicious, to prevent refugees from leaving the area and seek refuge in other Lebanese cities starting from the nearby Tripoli on the Mediterranean coast. According to Lebanese intelligence sources cited by the British newspaper The Guardian, the Damascus government would exercise "enormous pressure" on Beirut (where he currently lacks a government) to ensure that refugees are welcome.
Also, coming from the Lebanese border WOULD BE weapons to opposition groups in Syria, with the risk of turning the anti-regime protest in a civil war, ethnic and religious connotations. For Lebanon would be the worst case scenario, because given the political and historical ties between the two countries, a possible explosion in Syria could easily infect the fragile mosaic of Lebanon, with completely unpredictable results.
Tripoli, northern Lebanon's main city and the country's second city, it hosts a large minority Alawite - such as the Assad family - in a strong Sunni majority, in favor of the coalition led by former Lebanese Prime Minister Hariri, who has never made any secret of his hostility to Syria.
Hariri and his entourage have openly accused Damascus of being behind the attack on 15 February 2005 claimed the lives of Rafiq Hariri, Lebanese Prime Minister and father of Saad. The Syrian regime has repeatedly accused "external training" to fuel the protests of citizens. The charge could be related to its Lebanese Sunni groups eager to see the collapse of the Assad regime.
The Syrian president, however, does not seem intimidated either by the new international sanctions or condemnation from the items that now come from all over the world. Indeed. According to some sites of intelligence, Damascus is preparing even the entry of some army units into Lebanon to remove the rear support to the demonstrators on which date they could count.
A desperate move, however, could have disastrous consequences, especially after, caught by surprise by the protests on Sunday for the 15 anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba, the Israeli government has ordered the reinforcement of the garrisons on the northern edge of Israel and the Golan Heights Golan.
Joseph Zarlingo Letter 22
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