Security Forces ...

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Security Forces Stop Protestors From Reaching U.S. Embassy


Security forces have stopped protestors from reaching the American embassy near Beirut where they were headed to demonstrate against what they consider U.S. complicity in the Israeli jail attack to seize Palestinian militants.
Army and police, that had deployed heavily Thursday to prevent violence, stopped the protestors on the coastal highway before they started ascending toward the mission in the hilltop Awkar region northeast of the capital.

The protest was called for by the Arab Organization for Defending Detainees to protest the Israeli prison raid in the West Bank town of Jericho in which Israeli forces captured six militants, including Ahmed Saadat, the leader of the Palestinian Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).

The committee issued a statement in which it expressed its surprise about the government's decision to ban the rally that it said was a sit-in not a demonstration. It said such protests do not require official permission.

The group said the demonstration was against Israel's "kidnapping of Ahmad Saadat and his comrades with the American green light."
More than a thousand troops in armored carriers and police in trucks deployed to major roads north of Beirut, setting up checkpoints to search cars for weapons and check identification of passengers. Traffic began to back up for miles on the coastal highway.

Acting Interior Minister Ahmed Fatfat said the deployment was not aimed at blocking the protest, although organizers did not seek required permission. He did say, however, that security forces would intervene if protesters resort to violence at the embassy.

He said the government was seeking to avoid a repetition of the violent riots in Ashrafiyeh last month that led to the torching of the building housing the Danish consulate. Authorities were blamed for not taking appropriate security measures to thwart riots during the rally against the defamation of the Prophet Mohammed.

The Jericho jail attack sparked a wave of violence against foreigners and foreign institution in the West Bank and Gaza. Militants stoned and set fire to the British Council building in Gaza where foreigners were also abducted.

Palestinian officials blamed the U.S. and Britain for withdrawing their observers stationed at the jail. Leaders of the two Western countries said they did so out of security concerns.

Israel claims that Saadat is the mastermind of the 2001 assassination of an Israeli cabinet minister.(Naharnet-AP)