BEIRUT: Lebanese army supporters protested outside and then stormed the Beirut offices of Qatar-owned satellite channel Al Jazeera yesterday, after a journalist published tweets ridiculing the military, the National News Agency said. “A large number of citizens gathered outside Al-Jazeera’s offices in Beirut,” said the agency, adding that some protesters “peacefully entered” the building and “chanted pro-army slogans”. They also demanded that journalist Faisal Al Qassem, resign. The protest came after he published photographs on Twitter showing top Lebanese singers performing in praise of the army, alongside a picture of rows of Syrian men rounded up in a raid on Thursday in Arsal. The pictures carry the headline: “The successes of the Lebanese army.” The photograph of the detained Syrians angered Syrian and Lebanese activists, who criticised the way the detainees had been treated.
‘Wanted’ Saudi killed in clash
RIYADH: A Saudi wanted on “terror-related” charges has been killed in a gun battle with security forces in a Shiite village, the Sunni-dominated kingdom’s interior ministry said yesterday. Basem Ali Mohammed Al Gidaihi “died yesterday (Saturday) afternoon,” ministry spokesman General Mansur Al Turki said. Gidaihi was taken to hospital after the exchange of fire in the village of Awamiya but suffered a “setback” following initial treatment, the official Saudi Press Agency said, citing doctors. An associate of the suspect was in stable condition after being wounded in the gunfight, the doctors added. Agencies
