The militias that control the Druse religious minority’s heartland in southwestern Syria have resisted the new government’s attempts to bring all armed groups under its control.

© David Guttenfelder/The New York Times

Attempts to seal porous borders through which guns, drugs and fuel flowed in Assad times are turning local tensions deadly

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.

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.

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© Photograph: Omar Albam/AP

© Photograph: Omar Albam/AP