National Security

Some Christians arm as Mideast perils mount

By BASSEM MROUEZEINA KARAM
Published September 5, 2014 9:42am ET
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Some Christians arm as Mideast perils mount
In this Wednesday, Aug. 13, 2014 photo, two young men ride a motorcycle past a church in Lebanon's Christian village of Ras Baalbek in the northern Bekaa region near the border with Syria. Across the Middle East, Christian communities as old as the religion itself feel their very survival is at stake, threatened by militants of the Islamic State group rampaging across Iraq and Syria. Many Christian villagers are setting up self-defense units to protect themselves against attack. In Qaa and Ras Baalbek, two Christian northeastern villages on the border with Syria, many of the thousands of expatriates who used to spend the summer there stayed away this year. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein) | Bilal Hussein

QAA, Lebanon (AP) — Every day around sunset, dozens of residents of this small Lebanese Christian village on the border carry their automatic rifles and deploy on surrounding hills, taking up positions and laying ambushes in case Muslim extremists from neighboring Syria attack.

“We all know that if they come, they will slit our throats for no reason,” said one villager as he drove through the streets of Qaa, an assault rifle resting next to him.

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Middle East Religion World