Lebanon ups security amid clashes with counter-protesters

BEIRUT - Lebanon increased security around protest centres in central Beirut Wednesday, after several nights of violence disrupted two months of largely peaceful anti-government demonstrations.

Barricades were erected overnight to block or control access to protest sites in the capital where counterdemonstrators have previously tried to attack protesters.

An officer who spoke to AFP news agency on condition of anonymity said the concrete barriers were intended to help security forces better control the sites and prevent further clashes.

After violence between protesters and security forces in Beirut on Saturday and Sunday night, and between counterdemonstrators and police on Monday night, the capital remained calm on Tuesday.

But tensions were recorded elsewhere in the country, as Lebanon awaits scheduled parliamentary meetings to name a new premier on Thursday, a required step to form a cabinet.

Anger had boiled over in Beirut after a video deemed offensive to Shiites was widely circulated online. It showed a Sunni resident of Tripoli railing against the leaders of the country's two main Shiite groups, Hezbollah and Amal, and religious Shiite figures and using expletives.

Their supporters descended on a protest camp in Beirut as security forces intervened to push them back, setting off hours of pitched street battles.

On Tuesday night, young supporters of Amal threw stones at anti-government protesters in the southern Shiite stronghold of Nabatieh, a witness said. Angry assailants also attacked protest camps in the northern district Hermel and in the southern Sidon.

On Wednesday, a mob attacked the office of a Sunni Muslim religious leader in the northern city of Tripoli, smashing in windows, Lebanon's official news agency and the military said. The assailants then moved to one of the city's main squares and set fire to the traditional Christmas tree.

The violence indicated that the tensions which flared in Beirut and elsewhere, fueled by the offensive online video, are also spreading to Tripoli, the country's second-largest and predominantly Sunni city.

The military said a mob of men on motorcycles gathered outside the home of Sunni Mufti Sheik Malek al-Shaar and rioted, “used profanity” and smashed property. The mob then moved to the square and threw fire bombs at the Christmas tree, setting it on fire. The military said it arrested four men and confiscated their motorcycles.

The violence threatens to plunge Lebanon further into chaos and ignite sectarian strife amid two months of anti-government protests and a spiraling financial crisis.

The daily An-Nahar said the assailants in Tripoli were angered because the Sunni mufti, al-Shaar, had called the powerful Shiite parliament speaker and head of Amal, Nabih Berri, to apologize for the video.

Supporters of both Hezbollah and Amal have been intolerant of protesters' criticism of their leaders and had tried for days, even before the video emerged, to attack the protest camps.

The anti-government protests, which erupted in mid-October, have spared no Lebanese politician, accusing the ruling elite of corruption and mismanagement, and calling for a government of independents. They have largely been peaceful, sparked by an intensifying economic crisis.

Prime minister Saad Hariri resigned on October 29, but bitter divisions between political parties have twice seen parliamentary consultations to name a new premier postponed.

Berri and Hariri met on Tuesday and urged the Lebanese not to be “drawn toward strife" and adding that some parties they didn't name are working to incite violence in the country.

Pressure to form a new government is compounded by the near collapse of the economy, already weakened by years of political deadlock and the impact of the eight-year-old war in neighbouring Syria.

The World Bank estimates that Lebanon is in recession, and has warned that the number living in poverty could increase from a third to half the population.