Analyst: Monday Unrest May Have Been an Attempt to Undermine Protests

Lebanese academic Imad Salamey has said that the Monday night clashes could have been an attempt to undermine the anti-establishment protests.

"Stirring sectarian strife is one of the ways used by those in power to divide Lebanese and weaken the street movement," he said.

But "I don't think it will work this time," added the professor at the Lebanese American University.

Salamey said solidarity between Lebanese has only increased "after people started losing their jobs and companies and being unable to withdraw money from the banks."

"The economic crisis has broken the barrier of fear, or at least the barriers between different religious sects," he said.

Dozens of people were wounded in overnight clashes between security forces and supporters of Lebanon's two main Shiite political parties, Hizbullah and the AMAL Movement.

It was the latest incident of violence in what have been largely peaceful protests since October 17 against a political class deemed inept and corrupt.

Shortly before midnight on Monday, young supporters of Hizbullah and AMAL tried to attack the main anti-government protest camp in central Beirut. They arrived on foot and scooters, apparently fired up by a video of a Lebanese man living abroad in which he insults the sacred symbols of Shiites.

They lobbed stones and fireworks toward the anti-riot police trying to prevent them from entering the largely empty main square.

The counterdemonstrators also torched several cars. The security forces responded with teargas and a water cannon.

In the southern city of Sidon, young assailants also attacked a protest camp during the night, destroying several tents.

The two-month-old protest movement has been mostly peaceful -- with the exception of some unprecedented clashes between anti-government demonstrators and security forces at the weekend.