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| News Analysis: Syria's crisis inspires sectarian violence next doors, causes regional instability | | |
DAMASCUS: Syria's 26-month-old crisis that has been themed with a sectarian overtone seemed to have inspired sectarian violence in neighboring countries, nurturing fears that the cancerous conflict has made it ways through the region to plague broader nations and to cause regional instability.
Inspired by the Sunni-led insurgency in Syria against the administration of President Bashar al-Assad, whose regime belongs to the minority Alawite of the Shiite Islam, Iraq, itself a sectarian-fragile country, has started to follow Syria's lead as tension between Sunni and Shiite groups is on the rise.
Last month, the al-Qaida wing in Iraq declared its merger with the radical Nusra Front in Syria under the banner of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. The merger has given the sentiment that Iraq would soon follow Syria's lead, especially that both countries are led by Shiite administrations with Sunni insurgents aiming to unseat them.
Even though Iraq has become accustomed to suicide bombings since the American-led invasion in 2003, the rate of the deadly explosions has heightened in tandem with identical tactics in Syria, which has yet to reach the same high as in Iraq.
Deadly explosions in Iraq over the past two months have killed more than 494 people in Sunni and Shiite areas.
On Monday alone, a string of car bombs and shootings killed at least 99 people in mostly Shiite areas in Iraq, media report said. On Tuesday, seven people were reportedly killed in a fresh series of explosions across Iraq.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said that he would overhaul the country's security strategy and personnel, calling for joint Sunni-Shiite prayers in a bid to foil attempts to ignite sectarian tension in his country.
The Maliki's government has recently accused regional forces of fuelling sectarianism in Iraq. "Those who target mosques are enemies of Sunnis and Shiites alike, and are planning to ignite ( sectarian) strife," Maliki said in a statement.
LEBANON: SHATTERED DISENGAGEMENT POLICY
Even though the official rhetoric in Lebanon espouses the " policy of disengagement" regarding the Syrian crisis, the violence in Syria has found its ways into Lebanon that constitutes of a similar melange of sects and beliefs as in Syria. The Lebanese Sunnis have grown more sympathized with the insurgents in Syria, using their border towns with Syria as conduits for armed men and weapons into central Syria.
Moreover, many incidents of fighting between Sunnis and Alawites in Lebanon have emerged to fuel fears among the Lebanese and to remind them of the 15-year civil war that had taken the best of their country back in the 1980s.
Over the past two days, clashes between supporters of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Sunni Muslim fighters raged in Lebanon's northern city of Tripoli on the heels of the Syrian troops' operation in the central al-Qussair city close to the Lebanese borders. On Monday, three people were killed and more than 40 others were reportedly wounded in the ongoing clashes in Tripoli.
On Tuesday, two people were killed during ongoing fighting between fighters from the Alawite mountain of Jabal Muhsin and the Sunni-dominated Bab al-Tabbaneh.
The rebels in Syria's city of al-Qussair have been buoyed by Salafi groups in Tripoli and the Lebanese town of Ersal. The Syrian army has waged an all-out assault against al-Qussair to cut the rebels' main supply line from Lebanon.
What further complicated the matters in Lebanon are the involvement of Lebanese Sunni fighters in the battles in Syria alongside the rebels and the participation of the Lebanese Hezbollah Shiite militant group in the fight alongside the Syrian army in al-Qussair.
Leaders of Hezbollah said recently that the groups' involvement in Syria was limited to protecting Lebanese Shiite towns geographically overlapping with Syria. Some of those towns are close to al-Qussair.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that a total of 23 Hezbollah fighters were killed during the battles in al-Qussair on Monday and other three killed on Tuesday.
Observers expressed fears that Lebanese fighting groups in Syria may take the fight into Lebanon itself as the hatred among them is growing.
TURKEY: FURTHER SUPPORT FOR SYRIAN REBELS
Fears of a Syrian crisis spillover into Turkey have also been spiked recently with deadly explosions targeting Turkish towns and killing scores of people in May.
Turkish President Abdullah Gul said recently that Ankara would not let "the chaos in Syria" spill over into Turkey, referring to the twin car bombings in a border town close to Syria last week which killed 51 people.
"We will not let it happen. Everybody must know it," Gul said when addressing local residents during a visit to Reyhanli town of southern Hatay province, where the deadly blasts took place.
Ankara has further accused groups affiliated with the Syrian administration of being behind the explosions. Syria totally denied the accusation and turned the table against Turkey accusing the government of Reccep Tayyeb Erdogan of being responsible due its support to radical groups in Syria.
The Syrian government accuses Turkey of playing a destructive in the crisis after being one of the main regional allies to the administration of President Bashar al-Assad. Erdogan's government opened its territories for Syrian refugees and rebels alike.
Reports further indicate that the Turks have even set up training camps and hospitals for the Syrian rebels.
Observers believe that the Turkish government's involvement in the Syrian crisis had made it part of the conflict, and thus it would suffer from the consequences of the regional instability.
ISRAEL: "PREPARE FOR EVERY SCENARIO"
Israel has also emerged as a player in the conflict, trying to win the hearts of the Syrian rebels by taking some of their injured for treatments at its hospitals in border areas near the occupied Golan Heights.
Israel has further carried out three airstrikes against Syrian military positions this year, claiming that it targeted weapons shipments bound to Hezbollah.
The Syrian government however slammed the attacks and said that Israel was carrying out aggressions against Syrian positions to weaken the morel of the Syrian army and to boast the rebels'.
The Syrian government pledged to retaliate against the attacks by pledging to render weapons to Hezbollah and to allow Syria- based Palestinian factions to wage attacks against Israel starting from the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his country was "preparing for every scenario" in Syria and held out the prospect of more Israeli strikes inside Syria to stop Hezbollah from getting advanced weapons.
"We will act to ensure the security interest of Israel's citizens in the future as well," he said.
For her part, Tzipi Livni, a member of Netanyahu's security cabinet and a former foreign minister, said she "doesn't think there is anyone in Israel eager to take action" in Syria, hinting at concerns that any strike could provoke a broader conflict.
The spillover effect of the Syrian crisis is deemed by political analysts as one of the main reasons behind the recent American-Russian consensus on holding an international meeting to push for a political settlement to Syria's crisis and to save the region from unraveling. |
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