Lebanon interior minister orders probe after protest violence

Lebanon’s Interior Minister Raya El-Hassan on Sunday orders the country’s security forces to open a “rapid and transparent” inquiry, after dozens of people in Beirut were wounded in clashes the night before.

Security forces in the capital used tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse demonstrators, who had gathered Saturday evening to demand an independent technocrat government ahead of talks due to begin Monday to appoint a new premier.

Hassan demands the identification of those responsible for the most violent episode since the largely peaceful anti-government protests began on October 17.

She warns against “infiltrators” seeking to use protests to provoke “confrontations.”

Amnesty International’s Diala Haidar decries the “excessive use of force” in response to “overwhelmingly peaceful protest.”

“The intention was clearly to prevent protesters gathering,” she says, denouncing the presence of masked men in civilian clothes joining security forces in “violently attacking protesters.”

— AFP