Roads Blocked in Beirut over Killing of Young Man at Pro-Arsal Demo
Protesters blocked two key roads in Beirut on Wednesday to condemn the death of the young man Hussam al-Shawwa who was hit by a bullet Tuesday during a pro-Arsal demo.
“A number of young men blocked the Sports City road with burning tires in protest at the death of the young man Hussam al-Shawwa,” state-run National News Agency reported.
Al-Jadeed TV said the Qasqas road was also blocked with burning tires as mourners fired heavily in the air during Shawwa's funeral.
Media reports said protesters also blocked the road in the nearby Shatila area.
“Security forces reopened the Cola-Sports City road and the Qasqas-Tayyouneh road after dousing the burning tires,” MTV reported later on Wednesday.
Shawwa's killing prompted some lawmakers to call for an investigation on Wednesday.
On Tuesday, Al-Jazeera TV said "a man (Shawwa) was killed in Beirut's Tariq al-Jedideh as security forces dispersed a protest that was held in solidarity with Arsal."
For its part, LBCI television said "the army's Military Police launched a probe into the killing of a man from the Shawwa family and the wounding of another during the dispersion of young men who had blocked the Qasqas road."
Demonstrators had blocked several key roads throughout the country on Tuesday to protest the closure of the only route leading from and to the border town of Arsal by residents of neighboring al-Labweh.
The army reopened the Labweh-Arsal road on Wednesday morning and sent reinforcements to Arsal and its outskirts as well as to neighboring towns in northern Bekaa.
On Saturday, al-Labweh residents had blocked the road leading to and from Arsal in the wake of a rocket attack on their town that left a young man dead. They said that the rockets were fired by gunmen operating in Arsal's outskirts.
The road was reopened on Sunday afternoon at the request of the family of the slain young man before it was blocked again late Sunday in the wake of a deadly suicide car blast that rocked the nearby town of al-Nabi Othman.
Lebanon has been on edge since the Syrian town of Yabrud near the border was taken by President Bashar Assad's troops and Hizbullah fighters on Sunday. Its rebel defenders started pouring into Arsal, which is surrounded by villages that are sympathetic to Hizbullah.
Lebanese aid organizations distributed a three-day emergency food supply to the neediest refugees in Arsal on Monday, a U.N. official said, but stressed that tens of thousands more had to rely on dwindling stocks within the town.
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