BEIRUT — Lebanon’s Communist Party on Thursday condemned the violence that erupted between members of its group and the Lebanese Forces, calling the incident a “deliberate attack” by the latter during the previous day’s mass protests to mark the one-year anniversary of the devastating Beirut port explosion.
Here’s what we know:
• During protests to mark the one-year anniversary of the Beirut explosion on Wednesday, a small-scale but violent fight erupted between members of the LF and Communist Party, groups on opposite sides of the political spectrum. The Lebanese Army intervened to disperse the crowds.
• In a statement earlier on Thursday, the LF alleged that its members were defending its offices from an attack by communist protesters who they said had thrown stones and Molotov cocktails at the building. The statement said that a demonstrator who was beaten up by members of the LF had first attacked one of their own, which prompted members of the party to defend him.
• The Communist Party condemned the incident later Thursday, calling it a “cowardly attack carried out by a militia faction of the Lebanese Forces.” The group said that a number of demonstrators were wounded, with some in critical condition, and that it held the LF “fully responsible for this barbaric attack.”
• Videos circulating on social media on Wednesday and Thursday showed members of the two groups engaging in violent clashes outside of the LF offices in Beirut’s Gemmayzeh neighborhood. One video showed demonstrators throwing stones and a Molotov cocktail toward the LF building. During the fight, a protester had been stabbed in the lungs, Al-Jadeed reported on Wednesday. L’Orient Today was unable to independently verify the videos.