14 soldiers injured in clashes with Lebanese protesters

Police intervene protestors with tear gas during a protest against Lebanese President Michel Aoun’s plan on meetings with parliamentarians within the new government formation process in Beirut, Lebanon on December 16, 2019. [Mahmut Geldi/Anadolu Agency]

Lebanon’s army on Friday announced that at least 14 soldiers were injured by stone-throwing protesters in Tripoli, northern Lebanon.

According to a statement by the Army Command-Orientation Directorate, quoted by the Lebanese official news agency: “A number of young men Thursday cut the public road in the Beddaoui area with cement stones, and immediately units were deployed in the area which intervened to open the road.”

It added: “Eight people were arrested for committing riots and causing injuries to the military while blocking roads.”

READ: Lebanon protests resume following New Year holidays

On Friday, Beirut witnessed a demonstration in front of the capital’s municipality building against “widespread waste and corruption.”

Army and security forces were deployed in the vicinity to prevent any confrontation.

Lebanon suffers from high unemployment, slow growth, and one of the highest debt ratios in the world, with a debt burden reaching $86.2 billion in the first quarter of 2019, according to the Finance Ministry.

Unless otherwise stated in the article above, this work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. If the image(s) bear our credit, this license also applies to them. What does that mean? For other permissions, please contact us.