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Alawite Gangs Hunt Sunnis in Syria

(Christian Science Monitor) Nicholas Blanford - The four Syrian men came up the river bank, panting with exertion and fear, the latest refugees to flee from Tel Kalakh, a Sunni-populated town lying two miles west of Arida on the Lebanon-Syria border. Since Saturday, thousands of residents of the besieged town have slipped into Lebanon, some braving sniper fire, others creeping through the rugged stony hills. Several refugees described seeing people getting their throats cut in the street by gangs of black uniformed "Shabiha" Alawite militiamen. They said the Shabiha were stopping people in the street and checking their identity cards for potential victims. "If they see he's a Sunni from his family name, they take him away and kill him," one woman said. "What we have here is a sectarian war between the Alawites and Sunnis." One man inside Tel Kalakh who was contacted by telephone said that most remaining residents were in hiding, either locking themselves inside homes or slipping into the woods and fields surrounding the town. Sales of black market weapons in Lebanon have skyrocketed in recent weeks, driven almost entirely by demand in Syria, according to arms dealers.
2011-05-18 00:00:00
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