BEIRUT Heavy fighting claimed at least six lives and left dozens wounded in Lebanon’s capital on Thursday as an escalation of pressures around last time’s massive portside explosion turned the corridor of Beirut into a warzone.
The army stationed tanks and colors to quell the road battles that sparked recollections of the 1975-1990 civil war for a megacity formerly traumatized by last time’s blast disaster and Lebanon’s worst-ever profitable extremity.
The bloody uneasiness, in which the sound of automatic gunfire and grenade blasts mixed with the wail of ambulance enchantresses, broke out after shots were fired at a demonstration by Hezbollah and Amal movements.
The protesters were rallying against judge Tarek Bitar, assigned with probing the massive ammonium nitrate explosion at Beirut’s harborage that killed further than 200 people and destroyed swathes of the capital on August 4 last time.
Pressures around last time’s massive explosion turn the corridor of Lebanon’s capital into a warzone
The judge had in recent days been in the sights of Hezbollah and Amal in particular for averring on subpoenaing top officers in his inquiry.
AFP reporters said Thursday’s violence started with gunfire from domestic structures targeting the Hezbollah and Amal sympathizers, who returned fire with AK-47 assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades.
A sniper opens fire at a Hezbollah-Amal protest to demand the removal of Bitar, the judge in charge of investigating the Beirut port explosion. There are dead and wounded. A very dangerous escalation pic.twitter.com/lZdWIlXHep
— Liz Sly (@LizSly) October 14, 2021
“ I can’t handle these loud sounds, especially the RPGs,” said one occupant trapped in the combat zone in the megacity’s southern Tayouneh area, who gave his name only as Samer.
“ It’s the trauma of the Beirut blast coming back each over again.”
Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi said the “ exchange started with gunfire, with the first casualty shot in the head”. He said at least six people were killed, all by gunfire, without specifying who fired the shots.
The Lebanese Red Cross put the number of wounded at 30.
In the chaos, pellets smashed into houses and left craters in the walls of structures, while numerous panicked civilians were trapped in their homes.
Among those killed was a 24- time-old who was hit in the head by a slapdash pellet inside her home, a croaker at Beirut’s Sahel sanitarium told AFP.
Heavy fire chimed out as ambulances rushed the wounded through the vacated thoroughfares, a many blocks from the Palace of Justice, where the protesters had rallied.
The army made some apprehensions as they raided domestic structures looking for those behind the gunfire, AFP reporters said.
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Hezbollah and Amal criticized the Lebanese Forces, a Christian party, that’s staunchly opposed to Iran- backed group, charging in a common statement that they had “ fired gunshots with the end to kill”.
Lebanese Forces principal Samir Geagea hit back, saying the real reason for the violence was the “ wide proliferation of arms,” in reference to Hezbollah’s magazine.
Geagea condemned the clashes and called on authorities to launch a disquisition.
Political critic Karim Bitar raised concern about further trouble ahead, saying that “ Hezbollah taking to the thoroughfares and throwing all its weight in this battle. could lead to big clashes and to the destabilization of the entire country”.
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