 An armed conflict between partisans of Chouf MP Walid Jumblatt's Progressive Socialist Party and rival Talal Arslan's Lebanese Democratic Party broke out in the town of Hlalieh in Metn, leaving five men wounded, including a sheikh. LDP activists accused PSP member Imad Zeineddine of starting a fist fight with their followers in Hlalieh. When several sheikhs intervened to stop the quarrel, Zeineddine produced a Kalashnikov rifle and shot five people. "You wanna know how you do it? Here's how, they pull a knife, you pull a gun. He sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue. That's the Chicago Beirut way!" |
The other side fired back, the LDP said in a statement.| ... and a wonderful time was had by all, except for the dead and wounded... |
The army intervened and disengaged the combatants, then made several arrests while conducting house-to-house raids. An-Nahar newspaper said police arrested Zeineddine, 51, after he fled Hlalieh to South Lebanon's town of Marjayoun. In a statement, Arslan condemned the incident and described it as a "blatant attempt to stir strife in the mountain." "Hlalieh's conflict aimed at stirring strife in the mountain through the attempt to assassinate our dear friend, Sheikh Moqbel Zeitouni," Arslan said. |