BEIRUT, 24 January 2007 — Protesters bent on toppling Lebanon’s Cabinet blocked highways and roads with blazing tires yesterday, sparking clashes with government loyalists in which three people were killed and 133 people hurt, police said.
The violence raised the stakes in a campaign by Hezbollah and its allies to oust Prime Minister Fouad Siniora’s Western-supported government. Siniora vowed to stand firm. “We will stay together against intimidation. We will stand together against strife,” he said in a televised speech.
“Today’s general strike turned into actions and harassment that overstepped all limits and rekindled memories of times of strife, war and hegemony,” Siniora said. He hinted that the government might take stronger measures.
“The duty of the army and security forces does not allow any flexibility or compromise regarding the public interest, order and civic peace,” Siniora declared.
The street trouble prompted him to delay his departure for an international conference on aid for Lebanon to be held in Paris today. He did not say if he still planned to go.
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.
Two people were shot and killed in the mainly Sunni Muslim northern port of Tripoli. Police said gunfire wounded around 50 people, many of them in the Christian towns. Police said 133 people were hurt in a day of skirmishes around the country. Stone-throwing crowds fought in Beirut and Christian areas to the north, even though troops caught in the middle fired in the air to deter them.
Black smoke billowed over Beirut as demonstrators shut main roads, including those to the port and international airport, to enforce a general strike called by Hezbollah and its allies.
Several airlines canceled flights. About 300 passengers were stranded at the airport because nearby roads were closed.
The army, which has been guarding government offices in central Beirut since the opposition began protesting there on Dec. 1, has few extra troops to deploy. It is already stretched after moving thousands of men to south Lebanon and the Syrian border following Hezbollah’s war with Israel last year.
Pro-government figures condemned the protests. “What is happening is a revolution and a coup attempt,” Christian leader Samir Geagea told Al-Jazeera television. “This is direct terrorism to paralyze the country.” Opposition sources say protests will last for several days. The campaign has raised tension between Sunnis and Shiites in Lebanon, still recovering from a 1975-90 civil war.
