Saturday, August 25, 2012

Regarding Damien Cave's reference to Sunnis and Syria in Tripoli

Al gave a good summary of Tripoli's recent history:
"My wife is from Mina, Tripoli which was a communist stronghold. In the early 80's, gun battles erupted between Islamic Tawheed in Bab tabaneh and the Alewites of the Arab Democratic party. The Tawheed tried to expand their power over Tripoli/Mina by attacking the Communists and seizing Mina and many parts of Tripoli. The SSNP (who were mostly Sunnis) and the Communists still held parts of Tripoli. In the mid 80's, with the help of heavy Syrian artillery, The Communists and the SSNP launched an attack and defeated the Tawheed in Tripoli/Mina and seized the areas the Tawheed controlled (without the Alewites of Jabal Muhsin). The Only Sunnis in the 80's who were against the Syrians were the Tawheed. The most popular Sunni leader in Tripoli was Rashid Karami who was pro-Syrian. The Sunnis in Tripoli remained pro-Syrian until as you mentioned it in 2005."