Gunmen Attack Security Forces Destroying Cannabis Fields in Bekaa
إقرأ هذا الخبر بالعربية
A police vehicle was damaged and an officer was slightly injured on Monday when security forces came under gun and mortar fire while destroying cannabis crops in a town near the city of Baalbek in the eastern Bekaa valley, the National News Agency reported.
An Internal Security Forces Nissan was hit with bullets and the officer, who was wearing a bullet-proof vest, was bruised after a bullet struck him in the back.
The ISF personnel came under fire although they were backed by the special panthers unit and army troops in their operation to destroy the crops in the town of Buday.
Police later briefly fired back at the source of intermittent gunfire.
Angry residents also blocked the Tal al-Abyad road in Baalbek to protest the move. But the army reopened it.
A similar operation to destroy cannabis was underway in Talia and Hermel.
By midday, 60 dunums of cannabis fields were destroyed, NNA said.
It added that the destruction of the cannabis fields will continue despite the attack against the security forces.
The army has since launched an investigation into the assault.
The Bekaa for long has been reputed as a fertile ground for drugs. During the civil war, the drug trade thrived into a multi-billion dollar business.
23 July 2012, 10:56
66
this shows who is against the state, and whose weapons attack security forces to protect their illegal activities.
23 July 2012, 11:43
75
Here goes the Baalbek economy. Maybe they should go after banks and people, since it is easier and less dangerous of being caught. Plus no need to wait for harvesting.
23 July 2012, 11:55
28
how sad, what can someone say that hasn't been already said, garbage just pure garbage.
23 July 2012, 15:12
14
cannabis shouldn't be a top priority. Fighting weapons smuggling into Lebanon as well as returning fire to the Syrian shelling of Lebanese towns should be on the top of the agenda.
23 July 2012, 15:41
00
Hands off the principal source of financing for the Resistance, we will use the weapons to defend the hashish!
23 July 2012, 18:11
21
Hashish problem in Lebanon will only be solved with a comprehensive compensation plan. These growers need proper, realistic state help and education to grow some other profitable crop. Not just the corrupt tobacco licence system that was attempted in the past.
24 July 2012, 02:38
00
400 pounds of seed per acre from hemp. Our government makes no distinction between industrial hemp, wild hemp and designer cannabis. Did these brave troops just destroy these peoples food crop?
24 July 2012, 03:33
32
What a show, to deprive the world of its best haxixe just to align with ill US devised politics on drugs? May the Bekaa endure the pressure, certainly the ISF can prove more useful cleaning other fields - like corruption in state itself.
