Clashes in Beirut as security chief mourners attempt to storm govt HQ

Lebanese policemen fire tear gas during clashes with angry mourners

 who tried to enter the Lebanese government offices after the funeral 

of slain intelligence officer Wissam al-Hassan in Beirut October 21, 2012. (Reuters)

Several people were injured in Beirut as hundreds tried to storm the government HQ demanding the ministers quit. Police used teargas and fired rounds in the air to disperse the angry march, which followed the funeral of the slain security chief.

Lebanese authorities stepped up the security presence in the capital, cordoning off the city’s central square. Leader of opposition group the Future Movement, Saad Hariri called on as many people as possible to attend the funeral for deceased official Wissam al-Hassan, who “protected from the plots of Bashar al-Assad.”

The opposition called for Sunday to be a “day of rage” against the “butcher Bashar Assad and the black regime that rules Syria.”

Mourners clad in black marched the streets, carrying pictures of al-Hassan and chanting anti-Syrian slogans. 

Hundreds of people who took part in Wissam al-Hasan's funeral crossed the metal barriers in an attempt to reach the Grand Serail, the headquarters of the government. 

Clashes erupted as the demonstrators walked into police forces who were determined to prevent the crowd from storming the building. The angy crowd responded with stones and fires.

Several protesters got wounded clashing with security forces, reports the Lebanese news outlet Naharnet.

Lebanese policemen clash with angry mourners who are preparing to storm the Lebanese government offices after the funeral of slain intelligence officer Wissam al-Hassan in Beirut October 21, 2012. (Reuters)

Al-Hassan perished in a car bomb blast that ripped through the Ashrafiyeh district of the Lebanese capital, killing seven others and injuring over 80 people. Hassan was 47 and the head of the intelligence section of Lebanon’s internal security forces.

The attack sparked ire from the Lebanese public, triggering protests throughout the country with activists blocking roads with flaming tires and denouncing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Anti-Syrian protesters gathered in downtown Beirut on Saturday to call for the resignation of Lebanese PM Najib Mikati, who they say supports the Assad regime.

Lebanese policemen clash with angry mourners who tried to enter the Lebanese government offices after the funeral of slain intelligence officer Wissam al-Hassan in Beirut October 21, 2012. (Reuters)

Najib Mikati offered to step down to placate protesters but his offer was denied by the Lebanese President Michel Sleiman.

"The Syrian regime started a war against us and we will fight this battle until the end," said protester Anthony Labaki, a 24-year-old physiotherapist who is a member of the right-wing Phalange Party, to AFP. He stress that protesters would not leave until Mikati’s government resigns.

Mikati intimated that the attack could have been linked to former Lebanese Minister Michael Samaha, who was recently jailed over suspected of planning bomb attacks to further exacerbate sectarian rifts in Lebanon.

"After the discovery of explosives, logic dictates that the two cases are related," he said.

Samaha was taken into custody in August for reportedly transporting explosives from Syria to Lebanon to be used in terrorist attacks in an investigation headed by Wissam al-Hassan.

Hassan also played in a significant role in the investigation of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri’s assassination in 2005. The Sunni leader was killed in a truck bomb attack that triggered the Cedar Revolution and the expulsion of the Syrian army from Lebanon after 30 years of occupation.

Angry protesters attempt to storm the Lebanese government offices after the funeral of slain intelligence officer Wissam al-Hassan in Beirut October 21, 2012. (Reuters)

Fragmented society

Lebanese society has seen itself fragmented by the Syrian conflict as the countries Sunni Muslims get behind the rebels and the Shiites offer their support to President Assad.

The security official who was assassinated was a Sunni Muslim who opposed Assad and the regime’s strongest ally in Lebanon, the Shiite group Hezbollah.

The coffins of top intelligence chief General Wissam al-Hassan and his bodyguard, arrive to downtown Beirut on October 21, 2012. (AFP Photo / Joseph Eid)

People gather holding flags as members of the Internal Security Forces carry the coffin of slain intelligence officer Wissam al-Hassan in Martyrs' Square in downtown Beirut. (Reuters / Jamal Saidi )

Supportors of the March 14 movement, which opposes the Syrian regime of President Bashar al-Assad, storm the govermental palace in Beirut after the funeral of top intelligence chief General Wissam al-Hassan and his bodyguard, in downtown Beirut, on October 21, 2012. (AFP Photo / Joseph Eid)

Lebanese policemen clash with angry mourners who were trying to storm the Lebanese government offices after the funeral of slain intelligence officer Wissam al-Hassan in Beirut October 21, 2012. (Reuters)