Riot in south Beirut

BEIRUT (AP)
Israeli warplanes overfly Hizbollah strongholds in Bekaa

Police clashed with rioters who burned tires, threw stones and fired guns in protest against attempts to demolish illegal housing in Lebanon’s capital yesterday.
Police said at least five people suffered gunshot wounds, but it was not immediately clear whether they were wounded by fire from the rioters or police officers.
The rioters blocked one of the two main roads leading to Beirut airport where it passes through the city’s southern suburbs. The main highway to the airport remained open, however.
Police said that when their officers arrived to enforce a government order to remove illegal shacks in the southern districts, local residents hurled stones at them and blocked the streets with burning tires and trash cans.
Armed men in the crowd opened fire on the police, prompting them to return fire, a police spokesman said, speaking on customary condition of anonymity.
The five gunshot casualties were civilians, the spokesman said, adding that the rioters damaged three police vehicles.
The city’s southern districts are a stronghold of Hizbollah, the political party and resistance group that was targeted by Israel during its 34-day offensive in Lebanon in July and August. Israeli aircraft inflicted massive damage on parts of the southern suburbs, leveling entire blocks around suspected offices and homes of Hizbollah officials.
Yesterday’s riot comes at a time of political tension in Lebanon, with Hizbollah and its allies calling for a national unity government. The Western-backed Prime Minister Fuad Siniora and his political allies oppose such a move.
Meanwhile, Israeli warplanes yesterday flew low over the Bekaa Valley and its main town of Baalbek, both strongholds of Hizbollah in eastern Lebanon, witnesses said.
Two jets screamed over the region which borders Syria, without drawing a response from Hizbollah fighters or the Lebanese army.
Israel has been violating Lebanese airspace on an almost daily basis since the August 14 ceasefire in its war with Hizbollah sparked by the guerrillas’ capture of two Israeli soldiers on July 12.
Despite Lebanese protests, the Jewish state has said it will carry on with the overflights until the soldiers are released and to keep Hizbollah from being resupplied with arms.
Last update on: 7-10-2006

Article from: Bahrain Tribune Newspaper- www.BahrainTribune.com