“I welcomed you, and you hit the hand that I extended.”The price for some refugees in Al Qaa was swift. The attacks baffled the town’s residents, as they have played no role in the Syrian crisis. Al Qaa, which means “the bottom” in Arabic, sits in the valley’s northeast corner, at the foot of barren hills a few miles from the Syrian border. The town’s residents are nearly all Christians, and standing amid red flowers in the central roundabout is a towering statue of Mar Elias, or St. Elijah, holding a long, curved sword. Tripoli Al Qaa Mediterranean Sea LEBANON Beirut Damascus SYRIA GOLAN HEIGHTS ISRAEL 25 Miles“I’d need to think a lot to come up with something,” said Elian Nader, a member of the town council, when asked what Al Qaa gets from the state.

Source: New York Times July 04, 2016 15:33 UTC