Sunday, December 03, 2006

The Charged Streets Of My Country

Rumors of street clashes were rampant this past evening in Beirut. The ISF and the Army were moving to quell one clash before moving quickly to quell another.

Barboor, Qasqas, Sabra, Shatila, Rasul A3tham Mosque area (where the road to the airport was blocked for a short while), Corniche Mazra3a, Salim Salam Bridge area, and Basta.

These are all Beirut neighborhoods that witnessed clashes and gun fires. The outcome: 1 dead and 13 wounded.

Ahmad Ali Mahmoud was shot dead in the Shatila roundabout. He is said to be affiliated to Amal. It's not clear who fired the shots at him and another two who were on the streets, but security sources say that the shots were fired from far which implicates "fifth columnists" (Check Beirut to the Beltway's assessment on that).

An Annahar photographer sustained injuries and broken bones in his face in the Qasqas clash, a clash which lasted 45 minutes during which the Army was trying to quell it. A bus carrying Opposition supporters was heading back to Dahieh from the protests and passed by Qasqas. A verbal exchange took place between the neighborhood residents and the bus riders which led to fist fights, use of batons, and hurling of empty glass bottles and rocks.

The ISF rounded up three Syrians who were hurling stones on the bus from a nearby mosque. This led to a retaliatory move by burning several stores owned by Syrian nationals in the Sabra neighborhood.

Tripoli also witnessed gun fire in the Abu Samra area. As March 14 supporters gathered in Marj Zhour roundabout, men in a Range Rover started firing in the air using AK-47s. Their vehicle carried a red and white flag, without a cedar. After the Army's intervention, they found in their car guns and live ammunition.

On another note, the Annahar daily reported that ex-President Amin Gemayel visited Sayyid Nasrallah at night and then subsequently was in contact with March 14 representatives to discuss the outcome of the visit.

A group of March 14 representatives also headed to Ain El-Tineh to meet with Berri and request a call for a Parliamentary session to which Berri was reluctant and warned that convening a Parliamentary session now would transfer the problem to the Parliament and instead the Opposition's demands should be met.

Just several hours before it's daytime in Lebanon. Worried about tomorrow more than ever.

Update: BAD NEWS- another protestor died after succumbing to his wounds.

"Nobody knows how many rebellions, besides political rebellions, ferment in the masses of life which people earth."

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow!

Well, whoever wants a civil war is really trying very hard to pour as much fuel on this fire.

People still think this ain't a coup?

Anonymous said...

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francois said...

The daily star states that one future responsible was jailed yesterday by the lebanese army

you can check that article
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=2&article_id=77379

francois said...

FGA and others ... commerce of the fear...

look to that paragraph of naharnet and taken by the medias close to the futur...

http://www.naharnet.com/domino/tn/NewsDesk.nsf/getstory?openform&EE0F2E42E338D6E64225723A0026F170
"Al-Mustaqbal television, which is owned by the Future Movement of anti-Syrian parliament majority leader Saad Hariri, said the army detained three Syrians who had allegedly provoked the incident by throwing stones from an overhead bridge at the passing Hizbullah cars.

The army command did not confirm this, saying only in a statement that the military "deployed and successfully restored order."