Assad forces sowing land mines on borders in bid to halt exodus

A Syrian man whose foot had to be amputated after he stepped on a mine just across from the Lebanese village of Irsal on Sunday was the first known victim, according to a doctor at a hospital in Lebanon where the man was brought for treatment.

The Syrian exodus to neighbouring Lebanon and Turkey has proven a deep embarrassment for President Bashar Assad, who has claimed the uprising is being managed by foreign extremists and terrorists.

A Syrian official familiar with government strategy claimed the anti-personnel mines are meant to prevent arms smuggling into Syria. Witnesses on the Lebanese side of the border have also said they have seen Syrian soldiers planting the mines in recent days in two parts of Syrian territory – in the restive province of Homs and across from Lebanon’s eastern Baalbek region.

“Syria has undertaken many measures to control the borders, including planting mines,” said the Syrian official.

More than 5,000 Syrians have fled to Lebanon since the crisis began in March, while Turkey has taken in more than 10,000 refugees.

The land mines are the latest sign of Syria’s increasing isolation and just how deeply shaken the Assad regime has become since the uprising began nearly eight months ago. Assad, a 46-year-old eye doctor who trained in Britain, still has a firm grip on power, although the cost has been enormous – The UN says some 3,000 people have been killed by security forces.

Syria is a regional nexus, bordering five countries with which it shares religious and ethnic minorities and, in Israel’s case, a fragile truce. Its web of alliances extends to Lebanon’s powerful Hezbollah movement and Iran’s Shiite theocracy. Turkey, until recently an ally, has opened its borders to refugees, as well as anti-Assad activists and breakaway military rebels.

When Assad took power in 2000 there was widespread hope that he might transform his late father’s stagnant dictatorship into a modern state. Instead, Assad has reverted to the same tactics that have kept his family in power for more than 40 years, using fear and brute military force to try to break the popular revolt against his autocratic rule.

Three residents of the Lebanese border village of Serhaniyeh showed an AP reporter a long sand dune barrier along the frontier where they said Syrian troops laid mines. Ahmed Diab, 26, said several trucks carrying about a 100 soldiers arrived in the area on Thursday and spent the entire day planting mines on the side of the barriers that is toward Lebanon.

There have been at least three cases this year of Syrian dissidents being snatched off the streets in Lebanon and spirited back across the border, Lebanese police say. The abductions have raised alarm among some in Lebanon that members of the country’s security forces are helping Assad’s regime in its crackdown on anti-government protesters, effectively extending it into Lebanon.

Syria had direct control over Lebanon for nearly 30 years before pulling out its troops in 2005 under local and international pressure. But Damascus still has great influence, and pro-Syrian factions led by the militant group Hezbollah dominate the government in Beirut.

There also have been reports of Syrian troops crossing into Lebanon to pursue dissidents. In September, the Lebanese army said in a statement that Syrian soldiers briefly crossed the border and opened fire at people trying to flee the violence in Syria.