Last update - 00:00 03/02/2008
Lebanon seeks arrest of 17 soldiers, civilians after deadly clashes
By The Associated Press
A Lebanese prosecutor issued arrest warrants Saturday against 11 soldiers and six civilians in connection with clashes last weekend between troops and Shiite Muslim protesters that left seven people dead and dozens wounded, judicial officials said.
The decision came a day after an attack on an army post left two soldiers
wounded a few hundred meters from where last weekend's riots against electricity rationing occurred.
Military court magistrate Jean Fahd issued the arrest warrants Saturday after questioning 120 soldiers and 85 civilians, said the officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.
The soldiers targeted for arrest included five officers, said the officials, who added that the civilians wanted were suspected of taking part in the riots or carrying unlicensed weapons.
The investigation is still ongoing, and authorities are still trying to
determine the full identities of three people who incited last weekend's
violence in the south Beirut suburb of Shiyah, the officials said.
Fahd ordered the release of 21 civilian adults and five juveniles on bail and freed three other civilians outright, the officials added.
Earlier in the day, the Lebanese government and the army command criticized Friday's late night attack on an army post south of Beirut that wounded the two soldiers, saying such acts only serve the country's enemies.
The army statement said Friday's attack was one of several against army posts in Beirut and its suburbs in the past days. It did not say where other attacks occurred and whether there were other casualties among the troops.
"Targeting the army means targeting security and stability and this is what Israeli enemy is seeking especially after the July 2006 war," the army statement said referring to the 34-day Israel-Hezbollah war.
The military said the attack aimed to mislead the investigation into the
violence. The statement also urged Lebanon's political and spiritual leaders to stand by security agencies and be careful of plans aiming to harms national coexistence and creating problems between the army and its people.
Meanwhile Prime Minister Fuad Saniora said in a statement that the timing of the attack is suspicious because it comes as the investigation is going on over last weekend's deadly clashes.
"It only serves the interests of Lebanon's enemies and the enemies of its
stability," Saniora said in comments released by his office.
The country has for the last year been engulfed by a sharp political crisis, compounded since November by the failure of Parliament to elect a head of state because of disputes between the U.S.-backed majority and the Hezbollah-led opposition, which has the support of Syria and Iran.