Lebanese Popular Committees in Syrian Villages Defend Themselves from Terrorists

Ghassan Qanso

Since hundreds of years, 30,000 Lebanese have been residing in 23 villages located in the Syrian border across from the Hermel, Lebanese region.
 
This fact that can be neither refused and doubted nor misinterpreted, isn't to be wiped out by fabrications and allegations promoted by the Syrian armed terrorist groups, which almost daily assaults these villages.
This comes as threatening, killing, sniping, bombing, kidnapping, and attacking villages have become a reality for inhabitants. Meanwhile, the Syrians fleeing Homs have also flooded into these villages in an attempt to escape areas of confrontation. However, terrorist groups' attacks escalated as their only goal is to evict Lebanese from their villages, farms, and properties.

Al-Ahed News website investigated in al-Hamam and Safsafa Syrian villages, which were under attack days ago by armed groups that had claimed it ambushed Hizbullah members. The truth is told by a member of the popular committees defending the area.
"We were at home when the armed gangs attacked us, so we defended ourselves. Two of the inhabitants were injured and Osama Masarra of the residents was martyred. We made them go back where they came from," the member stated.

Moreover, an inhabitant of al-Hamam village stressed, "the armed gangs' assaults are continuous and aim at evicting residents from their villages. They claim that Hizbullah fights here, but the truth is that we are the ones who are fighting, and we established popular committees to defend ourselves in case we were attacked."
Clashes in al-Hamam and Safsafa villages resulted in Osama Masarra's martyrdom. The martyr's father took pride in the martyrdom of his son, a student in Damascus University. He stated, "He was martyred defending his land after migration drove him to join the popular committees. He was martyred with the dream of returning home."

Furthermore, the father added, "The armed groups daily commit crimes without differentiation; days ago they had wounded an old woman by a sniper bullet."
As for Rashid Masarra, whose brother was kidnapped by the armed groups, he accentuated, "We migrated from several towns; from al-Tahireya, to Abu Houri, and Ain al-Damamel. They kidnapped my brother, cast us out from our own homes that were looted and burnt. They have nothing to do with the revolution, because they are a group of thieves and bandits."

Al-Ahed left for the Lebanese borders, yet the echo of inhabitants still rung and stressed that they will not leave their lands no matter of the cost, since this land was ploughed by their hard work, and they will defend it with all they have.


Source: al-Ahed News, Translated and Edited by moqawama.org