TO Beirutviolent protests are underway in Lebanon. There Red Cross Lebanese reports of five dead and about thirty injured. Violence broke out over one manifestation to request the removal of the judge Tarek Bitar, in charge of conducting the investigation into the explosion in del port of the capital in August 2020. Disaster that caused 200 deaths.
The judge’s main opponents are supporters of Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed Lebanese political and militant group. The aversion is due to the recent measures of Bitar who this week issued an arrest warrant for the former finance minister Ali Hassan Khalil, a senior official of the Amal party, an ally of Hezbollah. Bitar also issued arrest warrants to the legislator Nouhad Machnouk, ally of the former prime minister Saad Hariri and former Minister of the Interior. On Monday 11 October the head of Hezbollah Hassan Nasrallah he expressed harsh words against the judge, accused of being “politicized”.
From Beirut come images of urban warfare, barricades and armed demonstrators. The military has been given orders to shoot anyone carrying a weapon. “It is clear – says a senior representative of Hezbollah – that the protesters are fired by organized armed groups that have been planning this attack for some time”. Armed militants of the Shiite movement also participate in the clash Amal who, according to an Ansa journalist on the spot, fired at least two rocket grenades at the Lebanese army.
The Lebanese premier, Najib Mikati, has launched an appeal for calm in a statement, calling for “the arrest of those responsible”. Authorities have made it known that the president Michel Aoun he is in contact with the Minister of the Interior and the army chief to decide on the necessary measures to calm the situation.