Abu Rida barely has time to talk. As carefully, it attaches a stock of artisanal folding on a dilapidated AK-47 assault rifle, the torso barrel arms dealer quoted price to a group of young men who seek to purchase weapons and ammunition. Every few seconds his cell rings, yet another client passes a command or door on the past offers.
Unrest in the neighbouring countries of the Syria was good for business, as Abu Rida and other arms dealers served at the Lebanon find themselves overwhelmed by the Syrians to protect their families in cases where violence worsensresearch or the means to pull back on the security forces sent to crush the rebellion against President Bashar al-Assad. (See history of photo of the AK-47).
"There is a frenzy arm sale" Abu Rida said, "and it is all the courses in Syria." All of this. "He added that the weapons are also flowing in the Iraq Syria. Most wanted guns are assault rifles - the ubiquitous AK-47 and M-16 variants. A good quality Kalashnikov Russian, known in Lebanon as trade a "circle 11" de footprint stamped on his metalwork, today retrieves $1,600 - an increase of $400 a month previously. In 2006, the same weapon only cost about $500 and $600. The M4 assault rifle with grenade launcher, a weapon commonly carried by US troops, costs $ 15,000. Another popular weapon is a short barrel AK-47 known locally as the "bin Laden", because the Chief of al-Qaeda former one as a prop used routinely in his videos. The "Bin Laden" costs $ 3,750, almost 20 percent from last month.
But pas of all cases are related to the Syria: enter the door of Abu Rida cramped workshop bursts open and three young men, one of them jumping on one foot due to a gunshot wound. Minutes earlier, they had been involved in a shoot-out with a rival gang in a nearby district. They ask Abu Rida ammunition for their guns, including an automatic Tokarev Russian. Abu Rida told them that he has several boxes of ammunition for the Tokarev, but they date back to 1958. "I do not want to sell to you because the sleeves cannot fire," he said. (See pictures of bloody protests in Syria).
Arms sales boom seems to be motivated mainly by private demand, although there are persistent rumours of political factions in the Lebanon and elsewhere sending of large quantities of weapons in Syria by the traditional smuggling routes. The Syrian authorities have blamed "armed bands" for much of the violence in Syria. Last month, Assad accused Jamal Jarrah, a MP Lebanese Sunni regime and a member of the movement of the future, led by Saad Hariri, the Prime Minister of concierge, the Organization of arms transfers to the Syria. Jarrah has dismissed the application.
Also last month, a truck refrigerator filled with automatic weapons, grenade launchers, sniper rifles, ammunition and night vision goggles was seized by Customs Syrian passing in the Iraq Syria, press agency SANA Syria. The driver stated have been paid $20,000 by an Iraqi to deliver Syria weapons.
Policies and Lebanese security sources said time only during the past two weeks, the large quantities of weapons were shipped in the North of the city of Tripoli. The origins of the alleged arms shipments are not clear as it is their final destination. Security sources said that the arms - mainly AK-47 and rocket launchers - fall of Syria. But according to Rifaat Eid, the leader of the Alawi community in Tripoli (the sect even which constitutes the backbone of the Assad regime), the weapons are distributed to Sunni opponents North of the Lebanon. "Thousands of weapons fighting streets come", he said. "There are countries who play the game of weapons with us." (See pictures of the bullet manufacturing industry).
The line between the adjacent to Bab Tebbaneh populated neighbourhood of Alawi Jabal Mohsen of Tripoli and Sunni district is one of the most unstable homes in sectarian mosaic of the Lebanon. There is palpable anxiety here that if the unrest in Syria spill in the Lebanon, Tripoli will be the first place to erupt.
But the allies of emerging infectious diseases have also to distribute weapons. Rumours abound in Tripoli of a batch of Iranian AK - 47 s having been sent the movement Hezbollah Shi'ite for a Sunni politician allied in the North of the Lebanon. One of the assistants of the politician would have seen that rapid profit could be made by selling the gun to Syrian buyers. Cue deep embarrassment when Syrian security forces fell on AK - 47, manufactured by their Iranian ally in the hands of supporters of the opposition.
Still, tech-savvy young opposition activists who organized the movement of protest in Syria prefer to load Facebook pages rather than guns and insist on the fact that the uprising should remain Pacific. But there are growing indications that some members of the Syrian opposition is armed and are shooting back. AS the crackdown by the Syrian security forces intensified - and the regime comes under increasing international pressure - some are beginning to predict that an armed conflict is inevitable. The leader of the opposition young Tel Nimrud, a beleaguered Syrian town two miles north of the border with the Lebanon, says that the confrontation between the protest movement and the regime will soon be "follow the example of Libya".
"It will be an armed struggle against the Government," he said. "Until that weapons here, we will fight with our bare chests".
