1 Injured as Hizbullah Disperses Crowd Assaulting Charbel
A man was injured on Tuesday after Hizbullah members opened fire in the air to disperse protesters who assaulted Caretaker Interior Minister Marwan Charbel after he inspected the site of a powerful blast in Beirut's southern suburbs.
Charbel was leaving the Bir al-Abed neighborhood along with acting Internal Security Forces chief Brig. Gen. Ibrahim Basbous and accompanying officers when angry residents began pelting him with stones.
TV footage showed several men attacking Charbel as Hizbullah members rushed to cover his head and take him out of the area.
They later opened fire to disperse the men, injuring one of them.
In the evening, state-run National News Agency said Hizbullah MP Ali Ammar telephoned the minister and "thanked him for his solidarity visit to Dahieh and his support for residents."
Ammar also condemned "the spontaneous behavior of some citizens who were in a state of furor."
The caretaker minister earlier condemned the Bir al-Abed explosion that went off in a parking lot near Hizbullah's Islamic Cooperation Center.
He said during his brief tour of the area that it was “an attempt to create Sunni-Shiite strife.”
Speaker Nabih Berri later telephoned Charbel to condemn the assault against him, describing it as an “unjustified fit of rage against an official who shares the people's anger and sorrow.”
“The assault is one of the reasons of the worrisome chaos linked to the current situation in Lebanon,” he remarked.
“All sides should be vigilant of not just conspirators, but barbarians as well,” said the speaker.
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