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Lebanon: Beqaa Witnesses Wave of Kidnappings Amid Failure to Control Security

Lebanese soldiers patrol a street at the entrance of the border town of Arsal, in eastern Bekaa Valley, Lebanon. (Reuters)
Lebanese soldiers patrol a street at the entrance of the border town of Arsal, in eastern Bekaa Valley, Lebanon. (Reuters)
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Lebanon: Beqaa Witnesses Wave of Kidnappings Amid Failure to Control Security

Lebanese soldiers patrol a street at the entrance of the border town of Arsal, in eastern Bekaa Valley, Lebanon. (Reuters)
Lebanese soldiers patrol a street at the entrance of the border town of Arsal, in eastern Bekaa Valley, Lebanon. (Reuters)

Recent security developments in Lebanon's Beqaa have highlighted the failure of a security plan in the area after around six months of relative calm.

The province of Baalbek-Hermel has seen over the past three weeks looting and murder operations and three kidnappings for ransom.

This has led political movements to call on the state to re-impose its control over the area and to put an end to the spread of illegal weapons.

In remarks to Asharq Al-Awsat, Strong Republic parliamentary bloc MP Antoine Habshi said that the recent security events “showed that the State was outside this region and that security plans are not useful.”

“The State is required to stop the spread of illegal weapons,” he noted.

On August 24, unidentified gunmen kidnapped Lebanese Joseph Hannoush, while he was in western Baalbek, and transferred him through illegal crossings to the Syrian interior. His fate is still unknown.

Last week, Hannoush’s family received a call from one of the kidnappers, who went to the area of Tal al-Abyad, one of the districts of Baalbek, to call them and demand a $500,000 ransom for their son’s release. The family and friends of Hannoush held several sit-ins calling for the State’s help, but the case has seen no progress so far.

According to exclusive information available to Asharq Al-Awsat, Syrian security services raided on Friday Syrian villages on the border with Lebanon in search of Hannoush and failed to liberate the man following clashes with the kidnappers who managed to escape.

Last week, Murhaf al-Akhras, the son of Syrian businessman Tarif al-Akhras, was kidnapped between Aley and Chtaura in Mount Lebanon. His family received a call from the kidnappers demanding a $2 million ransom before he was released last Thursday, without confirming whether the ransom was paid or not.

Operations of theft, looting and smuggling of cars through illegal crossings and selling them inside Syria have been active recently.

A Lebanese army intelligence patrol last month captured, on one of the illegal crossings, a professional gang led by a Syrian woman, who rented cars with fake IDs and transported them to Syria to sell them there.

Commenting on the situation, a member of the Baalbek-Hermel parliamentary bloc, MP Ibrahim al-Moussawi, told Asharq Al-Awsat that the security situation was a priority for the Baalbek-Hermel MPs and the Hezbollah leadership.

“There is no security without development and no development without security,” he said, noting that the lack of resources, livelihoods, and services would drive some people towards certain directions” outside the law.

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Houthi Network Recruits Hundreds of Yemenis to Fight in Ukraine

Honoring a Yemeni fighter in the ranks of the Russian forces (local media)
Honoring a Yemeni fighter in the ranks of the Russian forces (local media)
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Houthi Network Recruits Hundreds of Yemenis to Fight in Ukraine

Honoring a Yemeni fighter in the ranks of the Russian forces (local media)
Honoring a Yemeni fighter in the ranks of the Russian forces (local media)

In a nearly one-minute video, a young Yemeni man tells how he and his colleagues traveled to Russia on the promise of lucrative employment in fields such as “security” and “engineering”, but ended up fighting for Russia in Ukraine.
The young man, whose face was covered, expressed with his colleagues their desire to return to Yemen. They said they did not wish to suffer the same fate as their friends and get killed.
Last Sunday, The Financial Times said in a report that Russia’s armed forces have recruited hundreds of Yemeni men to fight in Ukraine, brought by a shadowy trafficking operation that highlights the growing links between Moscow and the Houthi militant group.
Later in video recordings, young Yemeni men spoke about the practice of Houthi smugglers who take advantage of the difficult economic conditions of Yemenis to recruit hundreds of them, and send them to fight alongside Russian troops.
The network of traffickers operate from Yemen and other Arab countries, and coordinate with others within Russian territory.
The Houthi network recruited hundreds of Yemenis and sent them to fight in Russia, according to sources close to their families and others in the Yemeni government.
In one of the videos, a group of Yemeni recruits said they worked in Oman, when a medical equipment company founded by a Houthi politician, Abdulwali Abdo Hassan al-Jabri, lured them by promises of lucrative employment in fields such as “security” and “engineering” in Russia.
They said they were promised a salary of $2,500 per month. But arriving in Moscow, they were received by a representative from the Russian Defense Ministry who told them they will work as security guards at Russian facilities.
Two days after their arrival, the recruits were sent to camps, where they trained for combat and received a salary of between $185 and $232 a month. They are now calling on the Yemeni government to intervene to return them to their country.
But another Yemeni, Ahmed, who is familiar with a group of recruits, explains that he and his friends had warned these young men not to go to Russia where they risk getting involved in the ongoing war.
The recruits told him that they could escape to Europe and seek asylum as hundreds of Yemenis did before.
However, after arriving with the help of a Houthi-linked medical company, many have apparently been coerced into the Russian military, forced to sign fighting contracts at gunpoint and sent to the front lines in Ukraine.
A member of the Yemeni community in Russia told Asharq Al-Awsat that smugglers are luring Yemeni young men to go to Russia to work for salaries of up to $2,500 per month and are then transferred to Arab capitals, including Muscat, Beirut and Damascus, to be then transferred to Russian territory.
After their arrival, he said, the recruits are taken to weapons training camps, allegedly as employees of a security company. But they are later sent to fight on the front lines with Ukraine along with mercenaries from other nationalities.
Activists and members of the Yemeni community in Russia estimate that there are about 300 young Yemenis who refuse to join the fighting in Ukraine and want to return to their country.
“Those men were tempted by the dire economic conditions in Yemen due to the ongoing war,” the activists said.
A Yemeni recruit of the shadowy trafficking operation said that Abdulwali Abdo Hassan al-Jabri, a prominent Houthi politician, is one of the main recruiters. He is assisted by his brother Abdul Waheed, who was appointed by the group as director of Al-Masrakh districts in Taiz Province.
The recruit said that the group of traffickers includes Hani al-Zarriqi, who has been living in Russia for years, and Mohammed al-Iyani, who lives in a Yemeni neighboring country.
Two relatives of the recruits accuse al-Jabri and his aides of arranging the transfer of the young men from Yemen to a neighboring country, and from there to Moscow, on the pretext of working for private security companies. The traffickers receive a commission of between $10 and $15 thousand per person.