Islam Times - Two killed in Beirut clashes: Lebanese state media

Islam Times - Lebanese state media say two people have been killed and 18 others injured in clashes between the supporters and opponents of the Syrian government in the capital, Beirut.

The victims died in street fighting in Beirut during the early hours of Monday.

Rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns were used in the clashes, which broke out after reports said that Lebanese army troops shot dead anti-Syria cleric Ahmad Abdel Wahed when the convoy transporting him did not stop at a checkpoint in the town of Koueikhat, located in the northern district of Akkar, on May 20.

Lebanese security officials said another person in the convoy was also killed.

“The leadership of the army expresses deep regrets for the death of the two victims,” the Lebanese army said in a statement issued after the Akkar shooting incident.

The statement added that the army will “immediately form an investigative committee comprised of senior officers and military police under the relevant court” to look into the incident.

The deadly Monday conflict came a few days after one person was killed and several others wounded in clashes between supporters of the Damascus government, from the Jabal Mohsen neighborhood of the northern port city of Tripoli, and its opponents, who come from the nearby Bab al-Tibbaneh neighborhood, on May 17.

Fighting between the supporters of the Syrian government and its opponents in Lebanon’s Tripoli erupted on May 12 as anti-Damascus demonstrators tried to approach the offices of the pro-Damascus Syrian Social Nationalist Party.