Gunshots were fired on the morning of February 14th at protesters tents in Jounieh, next to the Fouad Chehab sports complex. LBC reported that the gunshots came from assailants who drove by as they were shooting at the protesters.
From its side, the NNA reported that the gunshots caused no casualties or injuries. The security forces arrived on the scene and announced that they will launch an investigation into the perpetrators.
People commenting on the news story seem to believe that they know who the perpetrators are. Many seem to be pointing the finger at supporters of the Free Patriotic Movement.
Recently, there have been many clashes between protesters and supports of the Free Patriotic Movement in Jounieh, which started over an incident with MP Ziad Aswad.
Reportedly, Asouad was dining in a restaurant in Keserwen and FPM supporters pretending to be revolutionaries alerted protesters to his location and set up an ambush against them. One video of them berating a person for being from Tripoli became viral.
This incident launched a set of protests against the actions of the Aswad’s bodyguards, which in turn resulted in clashes between them and supporters of Aswad.
Throughout the revolution, there have been many attempts by the supporters of political parties to try and stifle the revolution.
These might sometimes take the form of counter-protests, but a lot of the times they were violent raids on peaceful sit-ins of the Revolution.
Supporters of Amal, Hezbollah, and most recently the Future movement have violently clashed with protesters, beating them with sticks and destroying their tents.
The security forces have been accused many times of being allegedly complicit in these acts of suppression and violence as they have been reported to have stood by and watched as protesters were being beaten by the assailants.
The parties involved would often deny responsibility for these acts of violence, saying that the people who commit them do not represent them. Amal and Hezbollah have in many instances denied their association with the attackers.
Recently, a representative of the Future Movement, Abdel Salam Moussa has denied the party’s involvement in the attacks that took place on the night of February 13th.
