More than fifteen people were wounded yesterday following a speech by Hezbollah’s Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah.

The first person reported to be wounded was Muriel Choueiri, injured by a stray bullet from some celebratory gunfire that erupted as Nasrallah delivered his speech.

In other areas of Beirut, Amal and Hezbollah gunmen opened fire and hurled rocks in the direction of Tariq al-Jedideh and Corniche al-Mazraa as Nasrallah addressed via satellite a crowd of thousands gathered in Beirut’s southern suburbs on the 8th anniversary of Israel’s withdrawal from South Lebanon.

“A clash took place in the Corniche al-Mazraa area and gunshots were fired,” a source told AFP, asking not to be named.

Rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) were also fired at the Abed an-Nasser mosque. The Lebanese army was deployed and has cut off the roads between Corniche al-Mazraa, Barbour and Tariq al-Jedideh, and the wounded have been transferred to nearby hospitals.

It was the first such incident since the army took control of West Beirut after Hezbollah pulled out its fighters who had seized control in several days of clashes earlier this month that killed 65 people.

Future news, the media group associated to the pro-government Future Movement party, led by MP Saad Hariri, reported that 16 people were wounded in an “attack on civilians” by Hezbollah.

The Lebanese army cordoned off the area and restored order, said state-run TeleLiban, without giving details or reporting any casualties.

In the Bekaa, supporters of the Baathist Party and the Syrian Social National Party (SSNP) hurled hand grenades and opened fire in the direction of civilians in Taalbaya and Saadnayel.

-AFP/NOW Staff