Sunday, October 21, 2012

Angry Lebanese Attempt to Storm Government Offices

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/22/world/middleeast/thousands-gather-in-beirut-for-generals-funeral.html?ref=middleeast&_r=0

A funeral was held on Sunday for Brigadier General and security chief Wissam al-Hassan that was killed by a car bombing in Libya.  After the funeral, protestors took to the streets and tried to storm the Grand Serail.  The protestors claimed that Prime Minister Najib Mikati is nothing more than a puppet to Bashar al-Assad's Syrian administration.  Security forces surrounded the complex with barbed wire and lobbed tear gas into the crowd and fired their guns into the air.  No one was harmed in the main protest.  There were other protests that happened in other parts of Lebanon such as Tripoli where one person was killed.  A former prime minister and Sunni Muslim leader went on the air and said the killing of al-Hassan was an outrage, but after the protests started, he went back on the air and exclaimed that, "the street is not the way to solve issues."  Tensions are becoming higher and higher in Lebanon because of the unrest and fighting in Syria. 

Chris Lencioni

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