Tanks and lockdown: soldiers, protesters clash in Lebanon

Source:- newzee


Hundreds of protesters clashed with soldiers in Tripoli on Tuesday (January 26) as they demonstrated against worsening economic conditions amid a nationwide lockdown.

Angry residents took to the streets as Lebanon is in the middle of its strictest lockdown since the COVID-19 pandemic began.

Protesters, many of whom say the lockdown is increasing their poverty, set cars alight and hurled stones at soldiers, who in turn responded with tear gas and rubber bullets.

Countries worldwide are feeling the strain but the crisis is particularly acute in Lebanon, where the pandemic piled in on top of a financial collapse and a huge port blast in August that had already brought the health system to its knees.

Lebanon registered 3,505 new COVID-19 infections on Tuesday, bringing its cumulative total to 285,754 cases and 2,477 deaths in a country of around six million people