Syrian Fault LinesIn Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley
The Syrian war has already come to Arsal and Hermel.
ARSAL, Lebanon — In a former classroom in Arsal, Sekra al-Ahmad, 60, gently grips the forearm of her grandson. With her other hand she gently applies a lotion to a shallow wound near the child’s elbow, the result of government shelling that claimed the life one of Ahmad’s other grandchildren in Qusair. As lotion meets flesh he begins to resist. But Ahmad tuts away the boy’s protests and continues with the task at hand.
Three other families congregate alongside Ahmad’s in the classroom, part of a disused school complex leased by a local sheikh to cater to the growing influx of Syrian refugees into the area. The classroom now serves as an all-purpose salon, bedroom, kitchen, and bathroom. Others sleep out in the courtyard in tents.
Ahmad left Qusair 15 days ago as fighting between the Syrian army backed by Hezbollah and the Free Syrian Army (FSA) escalated in Homs province.
“We left without anything. We did not even have time to take the injured to the hospital. We just left them there on the ground,” she said.
