Suspect Killed in Zgharta Shootout as Family Members Retaliate
A wanted suspect was killed in a shootout with police during a chase in the district of Zgharta in the North, the Internal Security Forces announced in a statement on Friday.
It said that as an ISF patrol was monitoring an unlicensed constitutional site, when the suspect Abdul Hamid Hassoun happened to pass by the area.
The security forces promptly demanded that he halt, but he responded by opening fire against them from a gun that was in his possession, added the statement.
He soon got into a white Mercdes Benz and fled the scene with another unidentified man.
A chase ensued along a dirt-road until they reached a dead end.
Hassoun then got out of the car and began shooting at the patrol, forcing it to fire back in defense.
He was wounded and transported to nearby hospital, but he soon passed away, said the ISF statement.
The National News Agency Hassoun was heading towards the area of al-Aayrouniyeh in his white Mercedes when the security forces began chasing him in Mejdlaya.
Hassoun was wanted for possessing arms at construction sites and for preventing security forces from performing their duties.
Later on Friday, Wassef Abdul Hadi and Ziad Hassoun tossed a hand grenade at an ISF vehicle parked in front of a police station in the Abi Samra neighborhood of the northern city of Tripoli in retaliation to the Zgharta incident, reported Voice of Lebanon radio (93.3).
Security forces are pursuing the assailants to arrest them, it added.
Armed members of the Hassoun family have since taken to the streets in a number of neighborhoods in Tripoli, said VDL.
The army has brought in reinforcements to the city to ease the tensions, it reported.
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