2023-08-09 21:53:18
Security sources said that two people were killed on Wednesday in an exchange of fire between members of the Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah and residents of a Christian town following a truck belonging to the armed group overturned.
The sources said that a member of the Iranian-backed group and a resident of the town were killed in the clash, which occurred regarding 12 km southeast of Beirut. The two sides exchanged accusations of igniting the bloody clash.
Lebanese security forces unload the truck.
This is the most serious confrontation between Hezbollah and its Lebanese opponents since the bloody clashes that took place in Beirut nearly two years ago, which threatens to exacerbate sectarian tension at a time when Lebanon is suffering from deep political and economic crises.
Local MPs from the Lebanese Forces, a Christian party opposed to Hezbollah, accused the group of transporting weapons in the truck.
Hezbollah said the truck belonged to it and accused “militias” in the area of attacking its crew, saying that one of the men “protecting the truck” was wounded and later died. He added in a statement that an exchange of fire took place with the “assault gunmen”. He did not mention the tonnage of the truck.
The local office of the Lebanese Forces party accused “militants” who were escorting the truck of shooting at civilians, killing a man the sources said was a Christian resident of Kahala named Fadi al-Bajjani (64 years old).
His son Youssef recognized him and told Archyde.com that the two had tried to approach the truck following it overturned.
Lebanese security personnel and some residents of the village of Kahala at the scene of the accident.
He told Archyde.com, “We were regarding a meter away, but we mightn’t see what was in the truck. There were at least three (at least) people who were bowing (shooting) at it – two with machine guns, one with a man. Bey (my father) fell on the ground and I mightn’t reach him.” And when I arrived three minutes later, he was dead and not breathing.”
The truck had overturned on a slope near Kahaleh on the main road between the Syrian capital, Damascus, and Beirut. Soon, the residents closed the way around.
Nazih Matta, an MP for the region from the Lebanese Forces, accused Hezbollah of transporting weapons to Beirut on board the truck. Matta said in televised statements, “A person from Al-Kahala was killed… This is categorically unacceptable.”
Abdo Abu Khalil, an official in Kahaleh, said residents planned to block the road around the overturned truck.
The Lebanese Al-Jadeed and MTV channels broadcast footage of men in civilian clothes shooting in the street.
The two channels later showed footage of Lebanese army forces deployed around the truck at nightfall as a crane removed wooden crates from it.
The truck’s contents were not visible, but large groups of residents still gathered around it.
Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati spoke with Army Commander General Joseph Aoun and called for “calm and wisdom” pending the authorities’ official investigation.
Hezbollah, the most powerful group in Lebanon, was founded by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards in 1982. It has fought several conflicts with Israel and deployed its fighters to support President Bashar al-Assad in the Syrian civil war.
Its arsenal has long been a bone of contention in Lebanon, where opponents of the group accuse it of undermining the state.
Two years ago, at least seven people were killed in clashes following a rally organized by Hezbollah and its Shiite ally, the Amal movement, once morest a judge investigating the Beirut port explosion in 2020. The commander of the Lebanese Forces, Samir Geagea, denied at the time allegations by both parties that gunmen loyal to his party had targeted them with sniper fire.
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