LEBANON: 266 injured, one dead in Tripoli protests

TRIPOLI, Lebanon — The Lebanese National News Agency reported that the intensity of confrontations between protestors and security forces has decreased in northern city of Tripoli. Lebanese security forces pushed the protestors towards the inner neighborhoods of the city, especially Freedom Street. The agency also reported that yesterday’s confrontations resulted in injuries to 226 protestors and security forces and left at least one person dead.

The Agency stated that the Lebanese Army had brought in military reinforcements and widely deployed in Al-Nour Square and the surrounding streets.

Sources from the Red Cross stated that 35 wounded were taken to the city’s hospitals, some of them in critical conditions, while 67 others were treated in the field.

Amnesty International called on France to suspend the exportation of weapons to Lebanon, accusing the Lebanese security forces of using them to suppress peaceful demonstrators.

Amnesty stated that the exporting of French weapons to Lebanon must be conditional on their use in line with the rules of international law.

Lebanon have been witnessing the worst economic crisis in years, which pushed more than half of the population below the poverty line and nearly a quarter of them into extreme poverty, according to the United Nations.