Men Seen Abusing Syrian Man in Video Arrested
The Internal Security Forces Intelligence Branch on Wednesday arrested a group of Lebanese young men who appeared in a video posted on social media beating up and shouting xenophobic insults at a young Syrian man, Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq said.
The video, which has sparked outrage on social networking websites, shows the Lebanese men kicking the Syrian man as he sobs and cowers on the ground. They also ask him to curse his country, the jihadist Islamic State group and to repeat slogans supportive of President Michel Aoun, the Lebanese army and Army chief General Joseph Aoun.
Media reports said the men were arrested in the Ras el-Dekwaneh area in Northern Metn.
The incident comes amid high Lebanese-Syrian tensions in the country sparked by a debate on returning Syrian refugees to Syria and an army raid on Syrian refugee encampments in the Arsal region in which around 350 Syrians were arrested.
The mass arrests followed a confrontation between troops and a number of militants in the two encampments during which five men blew themselves up and others hurled grenades at the army, wounding seven soldiers and killing a Syrian child.
The military's treatment of detainees after the Arsal operation triggered fierce controversy in Lebanon and among Syrians, particularly after images emerged of troops apparently detaining scores of refugees and an army announcement that four detainees had died due to pre-existing health problems.
The tensions were further fueled by calls for rival demos and allegations that Syrian refugees intend to stage “a protest against the Lebanese army.”
Source: Naharnet
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