Unreported World

Neighbors at War (2014x6)

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Reporter Krishnan Guru-Murthy and director Adam Pletts manage to film on both sides of the lines in the Lebanese city of Tripoli, where Sunni Muslim fighters are besieging an Alawite neighbourhood in a conflict mirroring that happening in Syria. Guru-Murthy uncovers a vicious low-level war of sniping, assassinations and kneecappings, and meets commanders and gunmen who revel in killing their neighbours, and whose hate has taken over their lives. The Unreported World team visits the house of one of the local Sunni commanders, Abu Ali, who used to run a snooker hall. Together with his 30 fighters, Ali monitors the Alawite houses in Tripoli's Jabal Mohsen enclave, located on the hill above the Bab al Tabbaneh Sunni district of the city. Also at the house is one of Abu Ali's henchmen: a man whose speciality is kneecapping those Alawites who have to venture from their neighbourhood into the city centre. He tells Guru-Murthy that he has so far kneecapped around 45 people and is planning to shoot more in the coming days. The Alawites regularly return fire into the Sunni district. In the streets around Ali's house, keeping out of sight of the Alawite guns is part of daily life, with sniper curtains hanging across side streets to block the view. The team cross to the other side of the frontline, to meet Kamal Sana, a former taxi driver. He and his friends are remembering a neighbour who was shot by a sniper a few days before. The windows of Kamal's children's bedroom have been blown in by a mortar landing outside. Kamal's wife, Rola, says that over the last three years living here has become terrifying. But this is their family home and they don't want to leave. Kamal tells the team about the automatic weapons he keeps at home and says his fighters use 'anything it takes' but he's not willing to discuss where the weapons come from. Kamal's neighbour, Ali Assir, tells Guru-Murthy that he used to be a taxi driver until he was dragged out of his car in T