Secret British team helped defend Lebanese village from IS

A small British team of former soldiers and engineers helped save a Christian village in Lebanon from a massacre at the hands of Islamic State forces.

The clandestine team has been working to build 12 watchtowers along the Syria-Lebanon border since Islamic State fighters declared their intention to take over Lebanon, the Daily Telegraph has revealed.

One of the watchtowers, Tango 10, was completed in July at a pass leading to the predominantly Christian village of Ras Baalbek in the north of Lebanon, bordered by a lawless mountain range where Islamic State militants are believed to be living.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Two weeks after its construction, Islamic State fighters launched a major attack on the Lebanese border, but were deterred from Ras Baalbek by Tango 10.

"When the invasion came, a line of vehicles split off and headed for Ras Baalbek," said one of the British team. "Then they stopped and looked up at the watchtower and all its artillery waiting for them. They turned around."

Tom Fletcher, the British ambassador to Lebanon, told the Telegraph that he believed the watchtower had prevented a massacre at Ras Baalbek. He said this could have led to a catastrophic destabilisation of the country, which is home to Druze, Sunni and Shia Muslims and two million Christians.

"They [Islamic State] want these big symbolic victories – you bust through a border, you carry out a massacre and you get the attention," he said. "In a country that has such existing fragilities, that would have had dramatic consequences."

Islamic State, which has threatened to attack churches and Christians in the region, managed to over-run Aarsal, a Sunni village a few miles to the south of Tango 10, in August. The Lebanese army fought them off, but dozens of civilians were said to have died and several Lebanese soldiers were kidnapped and later beheaded in Syria.

Tango 10 was estimated to cost the British taxpayer £150,000. Each watchtower is made from six shipping containers welded together.