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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Two dead in Hassoun clan gunfight |
| 2004-07-08 |
| TWO people were killed today in a gunbattle between members of the clan of US Marine Wassef Ali Hassoun and people who taunted them as being American collaborators, Lebanese security and hospital officials said. Witnesses said a distant relative of Corporal Hassoun opened fire on people who taunted him outside his shop, which stands in a separate part Tripoli where the family of Corporal Hassoun lives. The casualties, who included three wounded people, were not members of the Hassoun clan, which numbers over 1000 people, witnesses and officials said, speaking on customary condition of anonymity. Corporal Hassoun, who disappeared in Iraq more than two weeks ago, turned up in Lebanon and was meeting American officials at the US Embassy in Beirut, according to US State Department spokesman Richard Boucher. Journalists had waited all day outside the building where his family owns an apartment in the Abu Samra neighbourhood, hoping to meet the Marine or members of his family. Members of the Hassoun clan used cars to block the street outside the building at both ends. The security officials were vague about how the gunbattle began, but they said it had to do with an earlier dispute that was compounded by jeers to the effect that the Hassouns were US collaborators owing to Corporal Hassoun’s service in the US armed forces. Witnesses said a member of the Hassoun family, a distant relative of Corporal Hassoun, had been arguing for days against the presence of street vendors outside his store. During one such argument today, people provoked the shopkeeper with taunts that his family were American agents, said the witnesses, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Mr Hassoun went into his shop and came back with a rifle. He opened fire, killing two people and wounding three others, the witnesses said. Mr Hassoun then fled, leaving his shop open. Relatives of the victims quickly arrived on the scene. One threw a grenade into the shop, setting it on fire, the witnesses said. Members of the crowd attacked two photographers, including Mahmoud Tawil who freelances for The Associated Press. Police sealed off the area and began searching for Mr Hassoun. Tripoli, Lebanon’s second-largest city, is a predominantly Sunni Muslim town where anti-American sentiments are strong in certain quarters. In 2002-03, a series of bombs exploded outside American franchises in Tripoli and Beirut, such as McDonald’s and KFC. The attacks, which wounded five people, were seen as a response to Washington’s policies on Israel and Iraq. |
| Posted by:tipper |
| #4 Maybe Wassef can apply his Marine training in the service of his clan. The US certainly didn't get its money's worth. |
| Posted by: ed 2004-07-08 9:43:46 PM |
| #3 Could this Hassoun story possibly get any more bizarre??? I don't think so! Now, his family has started a new war in Lebanon, which, although it was the client state of terrorist Syria, had been quiet and unheard from until now. Who IS this guy? |
| Posted by: Jen 2004-07-08 8:11:16 PM |
| #2 Lebanon, formerly the "Switzerland of the Middle East", is now the "Lebanon of the Middle East". What a shithole waste of a beautiful country, thanks to the Paleos, Syrians, and Druze |
| Posted by: Frank G 2004-07-08 8:03:57 PM |
| #1 Geez, good thing they didn't tell him his mother wears Army shoes. He woulda popped a tactical nuke. |
| Posted by: anymouse 2004-07-08 7:48:52 PM |