No image available
/ 23 January 2007
Thousands of Lebanese protesters blocked main roads in Beirut and around the country with rubble and burning tyres on Tuesday at the start of a general strike called by the opposition to try to topple the government. The opposition, which includes Hezbollah, is demanding a unity government and early elections.
No image available
/ 4 December 2006
Lebanon’s army deployed more soldiers in Beirut on Monday after the killing of a pro-Syrian Shi’ite Muslim demonstrator raised fears anti-government protests could turn into sectarian violence. Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa warned the crisis could worsen and indicated he had discussed ideas for a solution with Lebanese officials during a 24-hour visit to Beirut.
No image available
/ 22 November 2006
Lebanon began three days of mourning on Wednesday for an anti-Syrian Cabinet minister whose assassination, blamed by his allies on Damascus, has reignited his country’s deep factional rivalries. Industry Minister Pierre Gemayel, a Christian, was gunned down as he drove through a Christian suburb of Beirut on Tuesday.
No image available
/ 21 November 2006
Lebanese Christian Cabinet minister Pierre Gemayel, an outspoken critic of Syria, was assassinated near Beirut on Tuesday, plunging Lebanon deeper into a crisis that threatens to destabilise the country. At least three gunmen rammed their car into Gemayel’s vehicle, then leapt out and riddled it with bullets, witnesses said.
No image available
/ 13 November 2006
Lebanon’s political crisis deepened on Monday as the last pro-Syrian minister quit the Cabinet shortly before it met to discuss the framework of a special court to try killers of a former prime minister. The anti-Syrian majority coalition has accused Hezbollah of carrying out a Syrian-Iranian plan to overthrow the Western-backed government.
No image available
/ 8 September 2006
Israel lifted its eight-week sea blockade of Lebanon on Friday after an interim maritime task force, led by an Italian admiral, deployed off the Lebanese coast, the commander of the United Nations peacekeepers said.
No image available
/ 4 September 2006
The commander of United Nations peacekeepers said a joint meeting with Lebanese and Israeli officers on Monday had brought closer a full Israeli troop withdrawal from south Lebanon, in line with a UN resolution. Major General Alain Pelligrini met representatives of the Lebanese and Israeli armies at his headquarters in the southern Lebanese port of Naquora.
Israeli aircraft and commandos raided a Hezbollah bastion in eastern Lebanon on Saturday in the first big attack since a truce halted Israel’s 34-day war with the guerrillas, Lebanese military and Hezbollah sources said. Three Hezbollah guerrillas were killed in a firefight with the Israeli commandos, Lebanese security sources said.
A fragile United Nations-ordered truce took hold in Lebanon on Monday after a month-long war between Israel and Hezbollah guerrillas, prompting thousands of refugees to rush back to blitzed villages in the south. Heavy fighting, along with Israeli air strikes and Hezbollah rocket fire, ceased after the 7am South African time deadline.
Heavy fighting in southern Lebanon stopped abruptly on Monday after a United Nations-brokered truce came into effect, but reports that Israeli troops killed a Hezbollah guerrilla underlined the fragility of the truce. Army Radio and the Haaretz newspaper’s website said the Hezbollah fighter was shot dead after he opened fire on Israeli troops in south-west Lebanon.