Police clash with rioters in Lebanon  [ 7 Oct, 2006 0837hrs IST AP ]
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BEIRUT:
Police clashed with hundreds of rioters protesting attempts to demolish illegal
housing in a southern suburb of Beirut. One person was killed and at least 16
were wounded.
Police said
residents hurled stones and blocked the streets with burning tires and trash on
Friday when officers arrived to enforce a government order to remove illegal
shacks in the southern districts, which are a stronghold of the Islamic militant
Hezbollah.
Armed men in the
crowd began shooting, prompting officers to return fire, a police spokesman
said. Rioters damaged three police vehicles, he
said.
A preliminary
investigation showed a teenage boy killed during the clash was hit by two
bullets fired at close range from two different weapons, according to a police
statement.
Twelve members of
the security forces were among the wounded, police said. Four civilians,
including a cameraman for the Hezbollah-run Al-Manar TV channel, were also
wounded.
Television footage
showed young men and women ducking for cover amid the sound of gunfire. Two
wounded children, their bodies soaked in blood, were carried away by residents
to a hospital.
The city's
southern districts are a stronghold of Hezbollah, the political party and
militant 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, levelling entire
blocks around suspected offices and homes of Hezbollah officials as hundreds of
thousands of residents fled the
area.
However, the area where
the riot took place on Friday was not among the hard-hit
neighbourhoods.
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