Day 1,112: Lebanon’s still not looking great
Lebanese army vehicles carrying Lebanese soldiers are deployed in the streets of the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli on April 2, 2014.
Today is Day 1,112 of the Syria conflict. The new death toll estimates from the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights range from 150,000 to 220,000.
The photo above is from the Lebanese town of Tripoli earlier today. Lebanese soldiers are trying to stabilize the city, where sectarian clashes related to the Syria conflict have killed some thirty people in the past few weeks.
Rockets from Syria have killed one person and wounded another in the Lebanese town of Hermel, the town Tracey Shelton reported from in February. (Its residents have become accustomed to chances of dying in a terrorist attack that are roughly 11,000 times greater per month than what, say, residents in the United States might face. More on the Syrian spillover into Lebanon here and here.)
A 40-year-old Palestinian woman who fled Syria's Yarmouk refugee camp died Wednesday morning in the Lebanese town of Sidon after throwing herself from the third floor of her building. Relatives told The Daily Star that her mental state had "deteriorated" with fleeing Syria (more on the Syrian refugee mental health crisis here), and also that her family could not pay the rent on their apartment. The Daily Star points out that, last week, another female Syrian refugee set herself on fire outside the registration office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees in Tripoli.
The German government is sending a frigate and 300 soldiers to the Mediterranean to help the US MV Cape Ray as it destroys Syria's chemical weapons through "hydrolysis procedures." The Baltimore Sun has a great read on the scientists waiting on board to begin those procedures. They all sound very competent. Nevertheless, hard to imagine tourists invading Santorini and the Amalfi coast with quite the same fervor as usual this summer: "Happy swimming! Love, Syria and the US MV Cape Ray. P.S. We'll be over here with the sarin. Nice one-piece."
The conflict continues.
Contractors work the Field Deployable Hydrolysis System (FDHS) onboard the M/V Cape Ray in the cargo bay of the ship in January, prior to the ship's deployment. (Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images)