close
close
hsuses

Attack on US embassy in Beirut; armed men injured

Theo

BEIRUT — A gunman opened fire on the U.S. embassy in Lebanon early Wednesday morning, leaving Lebanese troops shot and wounded, the Lebanese army said in a statement.

The embassy said in a post on X that “small arms fire was reported near the entrance” of the mission at 8:34 a.m. It added that “the facility and our team are safe.”

The army statement identified the gunman as a Syrian national and said he had been taken into custody and hospitalized. An army spokesman said the motive for the attack was unknown.

U.S. missions across the Middle East have been on high alert throughout the Gaza war, including in Lebanon, where protesters expressed anger at the Biden administration’s steadfast support of the Israeli military. In October, demonstrators set fire to a building near the embassy in the hilly Beirut suburb of Awkar.

The embassy was moved from the capital in 1983 after a suicide bomber attacked the mission, killing 63 people.

Roads around the embassy were briefly closed on Wednesday after the shooting, state media reported. Prime Minister Najib Mikati said in a statement carried by the state news agency that “intensive investigations” were underway to “arrest all those involved.”

The statement added that US Ambassador Lisa A. Johnson was outside Lebanon at the time of the attack.

Related Posts