Lebanon Ready to Explode
Charles Johnson
Tue Jan 23, 2007 at 8:55 am PST • Views: 296
The standoff in Beirut between the Lebanese government and the Hizballah terror gang is beginning to turn violent: Protests paralyze Lebanon, two killed, 100 hurt.
BEIRUT (Reuters) - Protesters trying to topple Lebanon’s cabinet blocked highways with blazing tires on Tuesday, sparking clashes with government loyalists in which two people were killed and at least 100 people hurt, police said.
The violence raised the stakes in a campaign by Iranian- and Syrian-backed Hezbollah and its Shi’ite and Christian allies to oust Prime Minister Fouad Siniora’s Western-supported government and hold early parliamentary elections.
Lebanese troops tried to keep rival groups apart, but police said a member of the Christian pro-government Lebanese Forces party was shot dead in the town of Batroun, north of Beirut.
Another person was shot and killed in the mainly Sunni Muslim northern port of Tripoli. Police said gunfire wounded 35 people, many of them in the Christian towns of Byblos and Halba.
Frank says: