SIDON, Lebanon — Being in the midst of explosions and gunshots is more than normal to a war correspondent, but experiencing the danger with my wife and two children, both under 8, was something I had never thought about until we got trapped between two attacks on the Lebanese army in the southern Lebanese city of Sidon, while on our way from our weekend venue in south Lebanon to our flat in Beirut. The worst was that while on the run, a third attack, a brief one with few bullets shot at the army, took place only a few hundred meters from where we were stuck in a crazy traffic jam.
Lebanese army troops closed the main highway that connects South Lebanon to Beirut after a gunman threw a grenade at a busy checkpoint, injuring two soldiers. According to eyewitnesses, the soldiers started shooting at the bushes surrounding the army post and killed the assailant, who according to Al-Monitor’s security source is a member of a radical group. But this wasn’t all.
