Border war Local disputes turn deadly as Syria's new rulers deal with Lebanese smugglers

Hidden trails snake through the mountains in Lebanon's eastern Bekaa valley, the furrowed earthen paths veering off before entirely disappearing into the mountainside scrub. "That's Syria," said Haidar, a smuggler using a pseudonym, tracing with his finger the contours of a route that if followed for about half a mile would cross the borders of Syria and Lebanon, with authorities being none the wiser.

- William Christou

In the remote Lebanese village of Qasr, borders are just a suggestion. The town sits a stone's throw from Syria and save for three soldiers manning an army checkpoint at the entry to the village, the presence of the Lebanese state is minimal.

The people of Qasr and the villages that straddle both sides of the nearly 250 mile-long Syria-Lebanon border were for decades in business together. Authorities in Bashar al-Assad's Syria profited from the flow of weapons, drugs and fuel over the border, and its ally in Lebanon, the Shia militia Hezbollah, got weapons from Iran.

But after the Syrian president was ousted by rebels on 8 December and a war-battered Hezbollah lost its grip over the Lebanese state, authorities in both countries have sought to reassert control over their borders and crack down on smuggling.

The attempt to seal the porous border has disrupted the decades-long smuggling trade between Syria and Lebanon and has turned local tensions into deadly international military incidents.

On 16 March, three Syrian soldiers were killed in Lebanese territory, prompting the Syrian army to begin to pummel Qasr and surrounding villages with artillery. Smuggling tribes in the villages returned fire and the Lebanese army also responded to Syrian rockets, with a ceasefire agreed a day later. In all, three Syrians and seven Lebanese were killed on both sides, while another 52 were wounded in Lebanon.