Thousands of Syrian refugees in the Lebanese border town of Arsal still have mixed feelings of terror, anticipation and caution after the Lebanese Army’s operation on two refugee camps in the area in which 21 refugees were killed among them a child and 400 refugee men were detained of whom nine so far have died under torture.
The managers of 128 camps in the border town between Syria and Lebanon only solution so far has been to ask Syrian refugees to raise the Lebanese flag amid reports that the Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri recently described the operation as ‘studied’.
A source in the Lebanese Army said that the Army brought military reinforcements to the town and its surroundings as well as establishing a security cordon separating the town from the hill area. The source added that 4,000 soldiers were assembled for this operation.
Although the Lebanese government denies it coordinates with the al-Assad army, the regime's aircraft appear in Arsal’s sky as the aircrafts bomb targets in the wilderness closeby.
Observers comment that the Lebanese Army operation on two of the camps in the area increased the severity of the plight of Syrian refugees. Although racism and hatred have existed from before the operation, Syrian refugees have since found themselves facing increasing campaigns of incitement and hatred against them by a segment of the Lebanese who do not hide their, official or unofficial, association with the al-Assad regime.
