BEIRUT: Many of Arsal’s residents already have permits to cross to the town’s outskirts and those protesting new restrictions are a minority, an Army source told The Daily Star Monday, hours after a confrontation between soldiers and protesters left three people injured.
“A large number of people have already obtained permits and those harmed by these measures are actually those who want terrorism,” the source said, requesting anonymity.
According to eye witness accounts and the Army source, a brief altercation occurred between soldiers and a few Arsal residents between 7 a.m. and 9 a.m. Monday morning at the Wadi Hmayyed checkpoint.
New measures to regulate those entering the town’s outskirts provoked anger among the residents, who cross regularly for work.
The Army announced Sunday that a permit would now be required to cross into Arsal’s outskirts. The move aims to better control movement in and out of the barren range where Syrian jihadi militants holding 25 Lebanese servicemen are holed up.
A permit can be retrieved by residents, many of whom own shops, sawmills, stone quarries and fruit orchards in the outskirts, at the Army Intelligence headquarters in Ablah or other offices nearby in Labweh or Ras Baalbek, according to the source.
Wadi Hmayyed remains the only official crossing between the town and its outskirts.
“These measures aim at protecting Arsal and its people from terrorism,” the source said. “In some cases residents can use the same permit to go back and forth more than once.”
He said most of the protesters Monday were actually Syrians.
“Those in Arsal who are protesting the measures are a minority, they don’t even constitute 10 percent of Arsal’s residents,” the source said.
Residents were already angry over the closure in September of one access road leading to the town’s outskirts. They say the move has hampered the movement of workers and owners of stone quarries in the area and significantly increased traffic jams on the outskirts’ entrance.
Stone quarries are a major source of income for the town, guaranteeing the livelihood of more than half of Arsal’s residents, local sources estimate.
Eye witnesses said soldiers at the checkpoint Monday were diligently checking the IDs of every individual seeking to enter the outskirts, causing a backup of 60-70 cars.
Previously, Arsalis were able to drive past the checkpoint with minimal scrutiny, Ahmad Fliti, a sawmill owner in Wadi Hmayyed, told The Daily Star.
“The Army was being responsible, but there were a lot of people,” he said.
“It’s been like that for the past three days, but today things got worse because some guys became more angry than usual,” he said. “They started throwing rocks at the soldiers.”
The Army source said soldiers responded by firing shots into the air and using tear gas to disperse the crowds.
Witnesses said the rocks were thrown at soldiers soon after the arrival of Arsal Mayor Ali Hujeiri, who told The Daily Star he was responding to complaints made by residents.
A Lebanese man and a 17-year-old boy were treated for bullet wounds at the Al-Rahme Hospital, according to Dr. Bassem al-Faris.
The 17-year-old, Mohammad Saadedine al-Hujeiri, a cousin of the mayor, was rushed into emergency surgery, where doctors repaired three severed arteries. He was later taken by ambulance to a hospital in Zahle.
The Army source said Hujeiri must have been hit by a stray bullet. He insisted that the protesters were not targeted, saying soldiers had fired in the air. “We opened fire in the air to disperse them,” he said.
The source added that the vast majority of Arsal residents supported the new measures. Those who protested Monday “want to protect terrorism and keep arms smuggling,” he said.
A representative from Khoury Hospital in Zahle confirmed that Hujeiri had undergone an additional surgery and said the patient remained under anesthetic but was in “stable condition.”
Many other protesters were arrested for physically assaulting Army troops and failing to cooperate with the military’s commands.
The Future Movement’s office in Arsal held an “urgent” meeting after the dispute with workers and residents, according to a statement.
“We consider any provocation, road blocking or anything of this sort a suspicious act that aims to sow strife between Arsal and the Army,” it said. “We consider the Army the only side responsible for security and border control.”
To ease morning traffic, the statement added, two passageways will be opened between 6 a.m and 8 a.m. in Wadi Hmayyed and Masyadeh “in order to facilitate the passing of workers in a normal and smooth manner.”
The Future Movement in Beirut also lauded the Army’s measures, after a delegation met with Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdel-Latif Derian. “The people need to look and reflect on why these measures have been implemented, because they are only in the best interest of the residents of Arsal,” said MP Atef Majdalani, part of the delegation.
Separately, the Army conducted raids in the Tripoli neighborhood of Bab al-Tabbaneh and arrested Youssef Ghamrawi, who is suspected of carrying out attacks against the military during the Army’s crackdown against jihadis in the northern city in October.
The Army confiscated weapons from Ghamrawi’s residence. – Additional reporting by Wassim Mroueh and Edy Semaan