LEBANON: Clashes erupt in Beirut, country tense after army kills anti-Assad group members

Record ID: 376728

  • Title: LEBANON: Clashes erupt in Beirut, country tense after army kills anti-Assad group members
  • Date: 21st May 2012
  • Summary: BEIRUT, LEBANON (MAY 20, 2012) (REUTERS) (NIGHT SHOTS) VARIOUS STREET SCENE / AUDIO OF GUNFIRE LEBANESE TROOPS IN THE STREET/ CARS DRIVING PAST BURNING CONTAINER VARIOUS OF ROAD BLOCKED BY CONTAINERS ON FIRE
  • Embargoed: 5th June 2012 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Lebanon
  • Country: Lebanon
  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement,Conflict,Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA71SHR567ZWE47XM7SRCUQRIHQ
  • Story Text: Residents of a Beirut suburb fired heavy machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades at each other on Sunday (May 20), the latest violence to raise fears that Syria's turmoil was spilling over the border into its neighbour.
    Earlier on Sunday, Lebanese army soldiers shot dead in northern Lebanon two members of a political party in an alliance against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
    Many Sunni Muslims in Lebanon's north sympathise with Syria's Sunni-led uprising against Assad and say the Lebanese army is taking orders from Damascus.
    Syrian troops were garrisoned in Lebanon, a tiny country still recovering from its own 15-year civil war, until 2005.
    A security source told Reuters that nine people were wounded in the Tariq al-Jadede district in southern Beirut.
    A witness said that two Sunni Muslim groups were fighting each other, but it was not clear how the violence had started.
    Earlier on Sunday, Sheih Ahmed Abdul Wahid, a Sunni Muslim cleric, and Muhammed Hussein Miraib, both members of the Lebanon-based March 14 political alliance, were shot in their car as they sped through an army checkpoint without stopping.
    Residents of the northern region of Akkar blocked off roads and burned tyres to protest against the deaths. The main coastal highway as well as roads in the capital Beirut were also blocked by enraged residents.
    The army released a statement confirming the deaths but not giving any information on who was responsible or what led up to the shootings.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2012. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
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