Lebanon is no stranger to the horrors of violence, proxy wars, sectarian strife, stagnant reforms, economic woes and refugee crises. In 2013 all of these afflictions have pushed the country into one of its worst security and social crises in years. Violence from neighboring Syria spilled over into Lebanon — in the form of kidnappings, cross-border shelling and car bombings. A car bomb on July 9 in the Beirut suburb of Beir al-Abed wounded dozens of people. On August 15, a previously unknown Syrian opposition group, the Aisha Brigades, claimed responsibility for a car bombing in the Rweiss suburb of Beirut that killed more than two dozen people and injured hundreds more. Eight days later, on August 23, car bombings targeted two mosques in Tripoli where sheikhs who support the Syrian opposition were giving sermons, leaving more than 40 dead and 400 wounded. No one has claimed responsibility for these
