08/24/2006
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Baalbek is usually a festive town in August, a place where Arab and world culture
is celebrated.
Lunch break. Huge craters had been left by the five or six missiles that had ploughed through
the metal, glass and machinery. The factory was Indian owned and two Indian workers
were killed in the attack.
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A journalist of Al Jazeera visits Baalbek, a bulwark of Hezbollah
by Christian Henderson
Baalbek is usually a festive town in August, a place where Arab and world culture
is celebrated. But when Aljazeera visited this week after several days of intense Israeli aerial
bombardment, inhabitants of the city were on edge.
The road running through the Bekaa valley, to the east of Beirut, was almost
empty and a series of petrol stations on the city’s outskirts had been bombed.
As we parked and walked towards the town’s historic centre a Hezbollah member
carrying a handheld radio quickly approached us and politely asked if we "needed
help".
Explaining that we were journalists visiting from Beirut we asked if we could
see some of the sites that had been hit in Israeli air strikes.
Baalbek is often referred to as a Hezbollah "stronghold" but the town also has
a large Christian population and it normally hosts an international festival in
the spectacular Roman ruins that lie in the heart of the city.
Yet Hezbollah are indeed strong here and in the 1980s party members were trained
by Iranian revolutionary guards stationed in the town.
Willing guides. Now, after three weeks of war, Hezbollah has seemingly taken the town’s security into their own hands.
Willing guides. Now, after three weeks of war, Hezbollah has seemingly taken the town’s security into their own hands.
The man asked us to accompany him to a place where more men with radios took
our passports and recorded our names. They apologised for the measures and said
they were happy to show us the city.
Our guide said "a tour in the town is no problem but we can’t take you up to
see the 'centres'", a reference to sensitive Hezbollah sites on a hill above the
city.
Around 250 houses and buildings had been destroyed in Israeli air raids and we
saw a number of devastated houses, schools, and religious buildings. Many of the
institutions were run by charitable organisations that are close to Hezbollah
but none of them showed any signs of being of any military use.
Most of what we saw were civilian houses, clearly identifiable by the teddy bears
and children’s toys, kitchen utensils and belongings strewn in the debris.
Monitored. We could hear the sound of Israeli drones flying over the town.
Monitored. We could hear the sound of Israeli drones flying over the town.Casting a glance up to the sky our guide laughed: "The MKs are taking a photo
of you taking a photo of that building."
MKs, as they are known in Arabic, are predator drones used by the Israelis to
record the GPS coordinates of targets, although larger versions carry small missiles.
While at another bomb sight our guide received a report on his radio that Israeli
F-16s were nearing the city.
He said: "You should go now. It's not safe."
Leaving the town we stopped at the liban lait milk factory which had been destroyed
by the Israelis in an attack two weeks earlier.
A plume of smoke was still rising between the mangled metal. Swarms of flies
had been attracted to the pools of rotting milk.
Factory target. The Bekaa has sometimes been called the "hidden front" in this war and more than 100 civilians from this agricultural region have been killed in Israeli air strikes.
Factory target. The Bekaa has sometimes been called the "hidden front" in this war and more than 100 civilians from this agricultural region have been killed in Israeli air strikes.
At least five factories in the area have been destroyed resulting in the loss
of around 1,500 jobs. The main border crossing between Lebanon and Syria is now
closed following repeated attacks and the main road between Beirut and Damascus
is deserted.
Further south of Baalbek, we reach the outskirts of the town of Chatura and are
met by the remains of the second biggest glass factory in the Middle East.
Salah Barake, one of the managers of the plant, took us up onto part of the roof
that remained standing so we could look directly into the wreckage.
Lunch break. Huge craters had been left by the five or six missiles that had ploughed through
the metal, glass and machinery. The factory was Indian owned and two Indian workers
were killed in the attack.Barake said: "It’s a miracle more people were not killed. It was just luck that
most of them were having lunch when the Israelis hit.
"I don’t know why they hit this factory. It was a good clean business. It had
nothing to do with either Muslims or Christians. In two minutes only, 42 years
of work have been finished and everything has been lost."
As the afternoon gets late we decide to leave. Climbing back up the mountain
road that leads to Beirut we pass bombed out trucks the Israelis believed were
carrying arms to Hezbollah.
Driving a lorry is now a risky business and in a futile attempt to avoid being
targeted drivers have attached white flags or the banners of big multinational
corporations to their vehicles.
When we reach Beirut later that evening we hear the news that an Israeli commando
unit raided Baalbek abducting six and killing 11.
Clearly the town's state of unease was justified.
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