MAJDAL ANJAR, Lebanon, 29 September 2004 — After overnight riots, hundreds of Lebanese staged a protest in this border town yesterday over the death in custody of a suspected Al-Qaeda leader arrested over bomb plots against Western embassies.
Protesters called for the resignation of Interior Minister Elias Murr and for a legal and medical probe into the death of Lebanese Ismail Mohammed Al-Khatib by a doctor appointed by his family.
Khatib, described by Lebanese authorities as the top operative in Lebanon of Al-Qaeda network, was among 10 people detained last week over alleged plans to blow up the Italian Embassy in Beirut. He died on Monday after suffering what the Lebanese security services said was a “massive heart attack.”
When news of his death reached his hometown of Majdal Anjar in the eastern Bekaa valley, protestors took to the streets, hurling stones and bottles at Lebanese border checkpoints.
Early yesterday, residents and clergymen gathered in and around the Bilal Bin Rabah mosque in central Majdal Anjar. The protesters, many carrying sticks and knives, shouted slogans against “the United States and its allies in Lebanon” who arrested Khatib.
“Abu Ghraib prison has moved to Lebanon,” said one banner, referring to the notorious US-controlled prison near Baghdad where cases of sexual and physical abuse emerged last year.
