Beirut (AsiaNews) – Clashes between followers of the opposition and supporters of the majority March 14 alliance broke out in Beirut late Tuesday ahead of a mass rally called by the government to commemorate the anniversary of the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
Supporters of the Amal movement and members of MP Saad Hariri's al-Mustaqbal Movement threw stones at each other but no one was injured even though a few cars were damaged and a motorcycle was set on fire.
On top of the tense situation, the Lebanese group Hizbollah announced on its TV network al-Manar that one of its leaders, Imad Mughniyeh, was killed in a car bomb in Damascus, blaming Israel for the killing. Syrian media however did not report the incident.
Considered the head of Hizbollah’s military wing, Mughniyeh was seen by the Americans as the ‘Shia bin-Laden.’ He was wanted since 1985 for his alleged involvement in attacks like the car bomb that killed hundreds of Americans in Beirut in 1983 and the attack against a Jewish institution in Buenos Aires, the Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina, that left 85 people dead in 1994.
Parties from the ruling ‘March 14’ majority are deeply committed to the upcoming demonstration which they want to turn into a mass rally that de facto backs the current government.
Its various leaders want the event to be an opportunity to say no to terrorism, political assassinations and the sabotage of existing political institutions and a chance to confirm their support for the Cedar Revolution that forced Syria to withdraw its army from Lebanon, a moment in Lebanon’s history that marked its return to full national sovereignty and to democracy.