2023-09-21 05:32:10
US Embassy spokesman in Lebanon, Jake Nelson, announced that shots were fired at the embassy yesterday, Wednesday, but no injuries were reported.
Nelson noted, “At 10:37 p.m. local time, small arms fire was reported near the entrance to the US Embassy.” “There were no casualties, and our facility is secure,” he said. “We are in close contact with law enforcement authorities in the host country.”
The heavily guarded US embassy is located north of Beirut in the town of Awkar, and security incidents around it are rare.
This incident comes after US Ambassador Dorothy Shea and the embassy staff commemorated the thirty-ninth anniversary of the bombing of the embassy in the Awkar area on September 20, 1984, with a car bomb, which resulted in the killing of 24 people, most of them Lebanese.
The embassy was moved from Beirut to Awkar after a major suicide attack occurred In 1983It led to the death of more than 60 people, as the embassy was built on the waterfront of the capital in the Ain Al-Mreisa area.
In 2020, Lebanese General Security revealed an attempt to target the American embassy in Awkar, by ISIS, and announced the arrest of a cell that was planning this, before the military judiciary referred the accused to trial, on charges of preparing explosive devices, purchasing chemicals for them, and conducting experiments. On it, and preparing to purchase a drone to place the bomb on it and detonate it above the American embassy.
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