Hezbollah Death Stirs Sectarian Tensions in Lebanon
Tensions between Sunnis and Shiites in Lebanon are rising as a result of the conflict in Syria, reports an Al-Monitor correspondent in Lebanon.
In the past few hours, Lebanon almost fell into the dangerous situation against which officials have recently warned, namely the spillover of the Sunni-Shiite strife plaguing many of the countries in the region, such as Iraq, Syria and Bahrain.
According to informed sources, on the morning of March 16, the body of a Hezbollah member arrived in the town of Mays in southern Lebanon after he was killed in the fighting in Syria alongside the Syrian regime’s army.
The exact location of the killing remains unknown, but initial reports say he was targeted by a sniper while he was standing at a checkpoint set by Hezbollah guerrillas near the Sayyida Zaynab shrine in Syria. A Hezbollah force, estimated to comprise hundreds of fighters, is spread throughout the Sayyida Zaynab region in the south of Damascus to ensure that the shrine is protected by Shiite Muslims. The shrine was subject to several attacks last year by fighters belonging to the Syrian opposition, mainly extremist Sunni Islamists residing in the Qodm and al-Hajar al-Aswad neighborhoods (whose residents are immigrants from the Golan) adjacent to Sayyida Zaynab.
As the news of the funeral of a Hezbollah member spread, a group of supporters of Sheikh Ahmad al-Assir, (a hardline Salafist calling for the fall of the Syrian regime, for the support of the Syrian opposition and for the Sunnis in Lebanon to fight the injustice of Hezbollah, which is allied with Iran and the regime in Damascus), established checkpoints in the city of Sidon, (the capital of South Lebanon), distributed sweets to passers-by and gloated over the death of a Hezbollah member.
