Updated in the aftermath of the double-bombing which targeted Burj al-Barajneh in south Beirut on the 12th of November, 2015. This latest attack was the deadliest such attack to hit Beirut since the end of the Lebanese Civil War in 1990, if we are to discount Israel’s brutal bombing and destruction of south Beirut in 2006. It pains me that I find myself returning to this post to update it time and time again, I hope and pray that this time will be the last.

At least 25 people were killed in a double suicide attack that targeted the Iranian embassy in Beirut Tuesday morning (November 19, 2013). The embassy is located in a predominantly upper middle class and predominantly Shia neighborhood of Beirut. If we are to consider the men guarding the Iranian embassy to be civilians, then every one of those killed in today’s attack was a civilian. As was expected, various Arab and Western media sites immediately ran with and published stories that tied the area that was targeted in the attack to the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah (associations like these have been around since before the 2006 War). Since this particular attack did not take place in Dahyeh proper, I thought maybe this time we would be spared all the talk of the targeted area being a ‘Hezbollah stronghold’, but I was wrong. Below are a few examples of how Beirut’s Southern Suburb was portrayed by different media sites in relation to this attack:

The Daily Star: “On two separate occasions, car bombs have targeted the southern suburbs of Beirut, a stronghold of Iranian-backed Hezbollah …”

…” The BBC: “People gathered at the scene of the two blasts near the Iranian embassy in the neighbourhood of Janah, a Hezbollah stronghold. “

“ The Guardian: “Gunfire was heard in the minutes after the blasts as security forces tried to hold back bystanders and allow a cavalcade of rescue vehicles to enter the Bir Hassan area on the western edge of Hezbollah’s Beirut stronghold .”

.” The Washington Post: “The bombings were the latest in a string of attacks against strongholds of the Shiite militant Hezbollah , as the war in neighboring Syria bleeds into its tiny coastal neighbor.”

, as the war in neighboring Syria bleeds into its tiny coastal neighbor.” The Wall Street Journal: “The bombings broke three months of relative calm in the southern suburbs of Beirut, a stronghold of Hezbollah…”

The headlines after the latest bombing in Burj al-Barajneh were similar, as a quick Google News search for ‘Hezbollah bastion‘ or ‘Hezbollah stronghold‘ will show you.

I do not dispute the fact that the areas that have been targeted are home to many who can loosely be described as being supporters of Hezbollah, but the fact remains that not everyone who resides in this so-called ‘Hezbollah stronghold’ is a supporter of Hezbollah. Many are neither Shia (this isn’t to say that Lebanese Shia are a homogeneous group of ardent Hezbollah supporters because they are not) nor Lebanese; Beirut’s Southern Suburb is home to large populations of Lebanese from different sects, most notably Christians, as well as Syrian and Palestinian refugees. Still, even if we were to assume that every last person who resided in Beirut’s Southern Suburb was a supporter of Hezbollah, this does not make Beirut’s Southern Suburb a ‘Hezbollah stronghold’ in the sense in which the term is understood. ‘Stronghold’ is a term with militaristic connotations that should not be used to describe a civilian population center that was the target of a violent attack. It is worth mentioning here that the term stronghold is sometimes used to describe areas with large bases of support for political parties, but what makes the use of the term ‘stronghold’ so dangerous in the context of Hezbollah particularly, are the misconceptions present in the minds of many regarding the nature of Hezbollah. As @DarthNader put it on Twitter, “the problem is that most Westerners don’t realize Hezbollah is not an underground paramilitary organisation, or that it has huge civilian bases of support”. My issue with calling Beirut’s Southern Suburb a ‘Hezbollah stronghold’ extends to any and every such population center that is overwhelmingly inhabited by civilians (Syria immediately comes to mind, where both the Western and Arab press has been known to describe towns and cities in Syria which are being subject to military violence as rebel or regime strongholds).

Calling civilian population centers ‘[insert name of militant group] strongholds’ de-civilianizes civilian victims of military/paramilitary violence. It makes it seem like the attack in question was directed at said militant group when actually the victims of the attack were those who are civilians by every standard. This image of Beirut’s Southern Suburb being a ‘Hezbollah stronghold’ also fuels these attacks against ‘Dahyeh’ to begin with. Had Beirut’s Southern Suburb not been tied to Hezbollah in the minds of most, including those of the Islamic State, Al-Qaeda, and Co. (in this case, the attackers) then the civilian inhabitants of Beirut’s Southern Suburb would not be the victims of attacks targeted at Hezbollah – although there is a legitimate argument to be made about how the victims of these attacks are now being chosen purely for their perceived religious identity, rather than for their supposed allegiance to a particular militant group or party.

Using phrases like ‘Hezbollah stronghold’ blurs the line between civilian and combatant. It makes it seem like the victims of these attacks more or less deserve their fate because of Hezbollah’s actions. When civilians are killed they deserve to be paid a minimum amount of respect, i.e. we are required to grant them their innocence, without categorising the cause of their deaths as payback for actions they themselves are innocent of. In the case of this latest spate of bombings in Beirut’s Southern Suburb, this begins with the need to consciously separate ‘resident of Beirut’s Southern Suburb’ from ‘Lebanese Shia’, and ‘Lebanese Shia’ from ‘Hezbollah supporter’, and ‘Hezbollah supporter’, from ‘Hezbollah militant’. Beirut’s Southern Suburb is not a ‘Hezbollah stronghold’, it is a civilian population centre inhabited by members of the Lebanese, Syrian, and Palestinian working class.