Lebanon Party Says One Dead After Hariri Clashes
Lebanon”s anti-Syrian Progressive Socialist Party said Sunday that one of its members had died of injuries sustained in clashes with supporters of the Hezbollah-led opposition.
"Lutfi Zeineddin died on Sunday morning of injuries received during attacks by supporters of the opposition on those who participated on Saturday in the anniversary of the assassination of Rafiq Hariri," the party said in a statement.
Hariri, a billionaire former prime minister, was killed in a massive Beirut bomb attack Feb. 14, 2005, which was widely blamed on Syria, although Damascus has denied any involvement.
Hundreds of thousands of people joined Saturday”s Beirut rally on the fourth anniversary of the killing, ahead of June elections pitting the Western-backed parliamentary majority headed by Hariri”s son and political heir, Saad, against a Hezbollah-led alliance backed by Syria and Iran.
Scuffles broke out between majority supporters and allies of the Shiite Hezbollah-led alliance in several west Beirut neighborhoods both before and after the rally, according to a security official.
"Some people threw stones and some were beaten up in the scuffles that left several with minor injuries," the official, who didn”t want to be named, told Agence France Presse Saturday.
Druze leader Walid Jumblatt of the Progressive Socialist Party was among the most vocal speakers at the rally.