What is Happening in the Village of Tfeil?

The small village of Tfeil is found on a plateau of Lebanese land that juts into neighboring Syria. In fact, some might take Tfeil for more of a Syrian village than a Lebanese one. They use Syrian currency, 30 percent of the population are Syrian nationals (another 35 percent are native Syrians who carry Lebanese nationality), and the only paved roads that reach Tfeil come from Syria.

Tfeil is also a town inhabited by Sunni Muslims and like most of Lebanon it has been caught up in the neighboring civil war in Syria.

When the Syrian Regime of President Bashar al-Assad, aided by Lebanese Shiite militia and political movement Hezbollah, launched a raid on Syria’s western border with Lebanon last year a number of opposition fighters and other militants fell back into Lebanon. One of the villages they sought refuge in was Tfeil.

According to a source close to Lebanese Interior Minister Nohad Machnouk, a political agreement forged between the minister and Hezbollah’s top security official Wafiq Safa ensured that the village would not be invaded. Earlier this year, all civilians were asked to leave the town but many refused.

A Lebanese security source speaking on condition of anonymity said that Tfeil was being bombed by the Syrian regime and Hezbollah, who was sending shells from Lebanese territory.

“Syria is indiscriminately bombing the town,” said the security source. “They don’t care if there are women or children or whatever.”

At one point, Machnouk and his fellow politicians in the predominately Sunni Future Movement demanded that aid be sent to Tfeil, as the locals were short on food, water, and other necessary supplies. A couple convoys visited the towns to deliver the aid. Civilians and journalists however cannot get through due to security checkpoints blocking access to the town.

Recently though, Hezbollah took over the town and the residents fled to the mountains. The Interior Minister’s aid said that a few residents stayed on in the town to ensure nothing was looted or stolen, but the move broke the deal between Machnouk and Safa and that the Interior Minister must now decide what appropriate action to take.

Residents there told Islamist Gate that they were expecting Hezbollah or the Syrian Regime to enter the town and were preparing for a battle should the inevitable occur. In the end though, the locals didn’t wage a battle and actually exited without incident according to the ministry source.

Lebanon has faced a recent influx of Syrian refugees that numbers over 1,000,000 in official statistics, though unofficially there are certainly much more. A number of opposition fighters have also taken refuge in Lebanon, with a percentage of those believed to be sympathetic to Islamist groups including those affiliated to al-Qaeda such as Jabhat al-Nusra.

A spate of car bombs starting last Ramadan hit Lebanon but they stopped sometime around March. That is until now. In June, three car bombs hit Lebanon, two at checkpoints and one in a hotel. The bombers claim to be part of a group calling themselves the Free Sunna of Baalbek.  The unknown group is encircled by a plethora of rumors, including one that they are actually an intelligence agency in disguise.

The operation that put Syrian border villages back under the control of the Assad regime was undertaken with the intent to stomp out bombings in Lebanon, according to statements released by Hezbollah figures. The bombings did stop and many Lebanese who support the movement praised their role in the operation.

Analysts though said they didn’t think that bombings would cease as now many militants have been pushed back into Lebanon and are operating out of border villages like Arsal, located to the north of Tfeil.

Tfeil is now under Hezbollah control but the militants that were holed up in that town have spread throughout Lebanese villages. Their involvement in certain suicide bombing operations in Lebanon is yet to be proven one way or the other. As Lebanese security race to block terrorist operations in the country though more information will be leaked and those linked to such groups will reveal the patterns that led them inside the Lebanese state.