Army fires tear gas to disperse official Hezbollah sit-in on airport road
The army on Saturday fired tear gas to disperse a crowd of Hezbollah supporters that again blocked the road to the airport after the group officially called for a "popular sit-in" to denounce Lebanon's banning of two Iranian planes from landing in Beirut.
Video footage shows tear gas canisters falling on peaceful protesters during a speech by Hezbollah official Mahmoud Qamati, but army sources told TV networks that the tear gas was fired after other protesters "blocked the airport road and attacked army vehicles."
A military official said there had been an agreement with the protest organizers that the road would not be blocked.
Hezbollah MP Hassan Fadlallah decried what he called "an unjustified and sudden attack by Lebanese Army troops on women and children who were protesting peacefully on the airport road."
"This is a suspicious attack that aims to pit the army in the face of its people, that's why we call on the Army Command to hold accountable those who committed this deplorable attack, out of keenness on the army and its role in protecting civil peace, and so that it does not turn into a tool of repression that would fall in the face of our people's will and so that it does not lose national consensus over it," Fadlallah added.
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