Nearly 20 injured in clashes between protesters, troops in Lebanon

BEIRUT — Nearly twenty people were wounded in overnight scuffles in northern Lebanon between security forces and protesters angered by a spiraling economic crisis, a medical association says.

The protests in the city of Tripoli came as the Lebanese pound plumbs fresh lows on the black market due to a financial crisis that the World Bank says is likely to rank among the world’s worst since the mid-19th century.

Calm returns to the city today after protesters tried to storm official buildings, including a branch of the central bank, overnight, forcing the army to deploy.

“18 people, both civilians and soldiers, were injured, including four who were hospitalized,” says the Emergency and Relief Corps, a local medical charity that dispatched ambulances to treat the wounded.

Rubber bullets and shrapnel from stun grenades accounted for some of the injuries, a spokesperson for the charity tells AFP.

The army says 10 soldiers were wounded in the Tripoli clashes, the majority in a single incident that it says involved a group of protesters on motorcycles throwing stun grenades at personnel.

The southern city of Sidon and the capital Beirut saw smaller demonstrations against the ongoing dramatic fall in living standards.

The Lebanese pound, officially pegged to the dollar at 1,507 since 1997, traded at 17,300-17,500 to the dollar on the black market yesterday — a record low.

Some social media users said it had fallen as low as 18,000, down from 15,000 earlier in the week.

The country is also grappling with a fuel crisis that has led to seemingly endless queues at gas pumps in recent weeks.