BEIRUT: Gunmen shot the mayor of a town in Lebanon and killed two of his companions only hours after he oversaw a hostage swap with a rival clan in an area increasingly riven by sectarian divisions, security sources said on Sunday. The attack near the border with Syria highlights how the civil war there has worsened enmity between Shiite and Sunni militias that support opposing sides of the two-year-old conflict.
Mayor Ali Hujeiri, a Sunni from the town of Arsal, was shot in the majority Shiite town of Labweh as he returned from the hostage exchange with a rival Shiite clan. The sources said the attack was carried out by residents of the area, but did not elaborate.
The Bekaa Valley region, where the attack happened, is religiously mixed. Some areas are controlled by the Shiite militant Hezbollah group which is helping President Bashar Assad crush the revolt. Other parts, like Arsal, are Sunni, and residents provide a safe haven for majority-Sunni Syrian rebels.
The hostages were being held in relation to an incident in June in which four of Labweh’s residents were killed by rebel fighters, the sources said. The recapture of the Syrian border town of Qusair in June by Assad’s forces, spearheaded by Hezbollah guerrillas, led to an influx of Syrian rebel fighters and civilians into Lebanon and more violence spilling over into the Bekaa region.
Lebanese mayor hit as Syria war ignites local rivalries
