BEIRUT — Gunmen erected roadblocks, burned tires and fired into the air in downtown Beirut in the predawn hours Tuesday, while in the suburb of Jounieh to the east, two land mines were found on the grounds of a hospital.
The roadblocks were manned by Shiites who apparently support President Bashar Assad of Syria and who were angry over the arrest of a Shiite man for firebombing and shooting into the offices of New TV, a Lebanon broadcaster that has been critical of the Syrian government. The incidents aroused renewed concern that Lebanon’s sectarian factions would once again be dragged into the conflicts of its neighbor.
Syria has close ties with Hezbollah and Amal, the dominant Shiite political parties here, and their activists have been strong supporters of Assad.
The firebombing suspect was identified as Wissam Alaaeddine, according to local news reports. After Alaaeddine’s arrest, gangs of young men, many masked, set up roadblocks in downtown neighborhoods, setting tires on fire and firing into the air.
