Hezbollah-Led Protesters Begin Strike To Topple Lebanese Govt.

(RTTNews) - Hezbollah-led opposition demonstrators have blocked roads with car tires around the Lebanese capital of Beirut and surrounding regions of Lebanon on Tuesday to enforce a general strike called by Hassan Nasrallah in an effort to topple Prime Minister Fuad Saniora's government. Saniora and his pro-government supporters have urged all Lebanese to ignore the call.

Hezbollah has been demanding the formation of a national unity government where it would have enough strength to carry a veto. Since December 1, they have been besieging the main government building in Beirut.

Opposition activists burnt tires and piled up rocks and stones on major highways north, south and east of the city as well as a ring road around downtown Beirut. Soldiers and firefighters were called in to remove the blockades.

This is from this morning on a Beirut Blog I watch often. This is a blog that is run by a SHIITE muslim who is anti-Hizbollah.

http://www.beirutbeltway.com/

Tuesday, January 23, 2007

Black vs. White in Lebanon

Hundreds of hooded men are setting fire to tires and dumpsters after filling them with fuel in Beirut and other areas. Eyewitnesses told me that they saw bulldozers assisting the protestors by shoveling dirt and dumping it on some of the roads. Trucks were also seen transporting tires and metal barriers to various points in the capital. They were not intercepted by the army or security forces.

The Lebanese army so far has been letting the protestors block the roads for a while, to then re-open them, although not in Beirut so far. This seems to be their “neutral” strategy. In fact, as of 7:30 AM Beirut time, most of the roads and tunnels in Beirut are blocked, including the airport road. The sky is filled with black smoke from the burning tires, and visibility is zero. Universities and schools are open, and so are most businesses. But the morning commute has been disrupted, and the army has failed to secure safe roads for citizens. There are unconfirmed reports of stoning at several locations by protestors. There are also reports of citizens leaving their cars at home and walking to work.

In the north and in Byblos, LBC and Future TV are reporting clashes between commuters and rioters. Several persons were wounded. A couple of cars were torched.

I call on all my readers in Lebanon to post updates about the situation in the comments section.

Article from Haaretz corrobrating some of the blog material and giving details on other happenings.....

At least 11 men were wounded Tuesday in clashes during the first hours of a Lebanese general strike called by the Hezbollah-led opposition to try to topple Prime Minister Fouad Siniora's Western-backed government.

Meanwhile, Lebanon's anti-Syrian majority leaders on Tuesday accused the opposition of staging a "coup" against the government by blocking major roads.

"This is a coup d'etat. This is a revolt in all sense of the word," Christian leader Samir Geagea told the Lebanese television station LBCI.

Five government supporters were wounded - one seriously - in a gunfight with opposition followers in northern Lebanon, security sources said.

They said members of the pro-government Future movement and the Syrian Social Nationalist Party (SSNP) exchanged fire in the village of Halba.

In the ancient Christian town of Byblos, three people were wounded when a gunman fired on protesters, security sources said. Soldiers arrested the gunman and seized weapons from his house.

Two protesters were wounded in a similar shooting in Batroun, and a member of a pro-Syrian opposition group was seriously wounded in an incident near the mountain village of Sofar.

In other demonstrations across Lebanon, some scuffles broke out between protesters and pro-government loyalists, especially in Christian areas.

Thousands of protesters blocked main roads in Beirut and around the country with rubble and burning tires as the strike began.

The strike escalates a campaign by the Hezbollah-led opposition to dislodge the pro-Western government, install a new unity administration and hold early parliamentary elections.

Protesters in Beirut, north, south and east Lebanon took to the streets at around 6 A.M. and began blocking roads. Smoke from burning tires billowed over the capital.

Hezbollah organizers, their faces covered in black masks, prowled on motorcycles, walkie-talkies clamped to their mouths.

Most main roads inside Beirut and leading into the city were closed, as were highways linking the capital to north and south Lebanon, as well as to the Syrian capital Damascus.

Several Arab and international airlines suspended flights into Beirut after the roads to Lebanon's only international airport and to the port in Beirut were blocked.

The airport remained operational, even though few workers showed up and passengers were unable to get there, sources at the facility said.

The national flag carrier Middle East Airlines (MEA) made no immediate announcement on whether it would suspend operations or not.

Many shops, schools and businesses were closed in Beirut but it was hard to tell whether this was in support of the strike or because people could not get to work past blazing barricades.

Lebanese security forces made sporadic efforts to open roads, but made little headway due to the crowds of protesters. They did not intervene in Hezbollah's south Beirut stronghold.

"This government only understands force and today is only a small lesson," protester Jamil Wahb told Reuters in the southern mostly Shi'ite suburb. "We will stay here until they give in."

Opposition sources say protests will last for several days. Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah told his supporters on Monday to be ready for more steps to press opposition demands.

Siniora's government has shrugged off the demands and is instead preparing for an international aid conference in Paris on Thursday that it hopes will yield billions of dollars for Lebanon's debt-laden economy.

Officials denied earlier reports that Siniora had left Lebanon for Paris a few hours before the strike began. "We are still here [in Beirut]," an aide said.

"Siniora out, down with the government," Hezbollah followers chanted as they lit tires in downtown Beirut, close to the prime minister's office.

The opposition's campaign, which started on Dec. 1 with an open-ended protest in central Beirut, has been largely peaceful, though one anti-government protester was shot dead in December.

Nasrallah said some government politicians wanted violence in Lebanon, which is still recovering from its 1975-1990 civil war. "We will move and if you want to kill us in the street, kill us," he said. "We will not draw our weapons against you."

The standoff has raised Sunni-Shi'ite tensions among Muslims in Lebanon, which has a delicate sectarian power-sharing system.

The government is backed by Sunni leader Saad al-Hariri and the opposition includes Shi'ite groups Hezbollah and Amal. Christians are split between the two camps.

Leaders allied to the government had called on Lebanese to go to work.

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