Car bomb strikes downtown Beirut

Beirutis this morning suffered yet another of what seems to be a string of tit for tat car bombings. This time, the target was a prominent member of the Sunni community. His convoy was destroyed by what is thought to have been a remotely detonated car bomb, killing him and four others and wounding around 70, according to the latest figures.  

The blast blew out almost every window of a nearby commercial centre, creating a carpet of broken glass. 

If Mad Max played cricket

 Changing gears a little here to take in a clash of crickets to greatest titans - England and India - who here swapped the green (or whatever it's called) for the remains of a destroyed factory. As cool as this looks, it's still a sad reminder that Beirut has pretty much zero public greenspace and certainly nowhere with grass that this could happen without greasing a few palms.

Tear gas and flying flag sticks

After what seemed like a fairly inflammatory speech by some political big cheese at the end of the otherwise-uneventful funeral of the recently assassinated Brig. Gen. Wissam al-Hassan, an odd combo of hard-line Sunni and right-wing Christian groups (for anyone wondering why these two make odd bedfellows check here) made a rush for the Serail (the Lebanese government's Whitehall, I guess) and had it out with the army and police who were guarding it. Sticks and stones versus tear gas wasn't really a fair fight, but I guess they started it. As an aside,  for any one with a stuffy head, tear gas, it seems, is great for clearing sinuses once you get passed the whole retching confusion thing.

There's a few more here too.

Five years on

This month Executive took a look at how Lebanon's industrial sector has been faring after it was devastated by Israeli air-raids during the 2006 war. Factories and industrial sites of all shapes and sizes were prime targets for Israeli bombers during the 34 day conflict.

Islamists vs Assad

Islamist groups in Tripoli – Lebanon's northern city – have been staging protests against the Syrian regime for a while but tonight marked their first demonstration in Beirut. The protesters apparently clashed with a  pro-Assad crowd early on in the event but were soon parted by a heavy security presence. There's a good report of how the evening played out here.

Assad supporters do their best to out-shout the Islamist demonstration, separated by  lines of security forces.

A small stand against Assad

After the violence that has met previous demonstrations of solidarity with the people of Syria, held in Beirut, the largest such gathering - held tonight in Martyrs' Square - went off pretty much without a hitch. I'd guess around 500 Lebanese and Syrians filled the monument area, holding candles and banners. Around 25 pro-Assad demonstrators turned up at the end and a short shouting match ensued between roughly the same number of anti-Assad demonstrators, with a strong police presence between the two. The 'anti' crowd were roughly hustled back into the middle of the monument area by ISF troops but regained their 'ground' on the outer slopes of the monument to hurl a few more chants before departing.

A demonstrator takes a quiet moment amid the anti-Assad protest in Beirut's Martyrs' Square

A small group of pro-Assad demonstrators picket the protest

ISF troops push anti-Assad demonstrators away from the pro-Assad picket in a bid to defuse the standoff

Reasons to be cheerful

Refugees from the Lebanese community in Abidjan, the recently embattled Côte d'Ivoire city, arrived back in Beirut last Thursday.  The Lebanese have been in Côte d'Ivoire since the late 1800s and I can only imagine how hard it must be to leave your entire life behind you; there were some truly moving moments as families were reunited. Still, worried for their loved ones or not,  the guys waiting soon reverted to type as a MEA hostess (above) made her way out of the arrivals hall.

Syrian strife spills into Lebanon

Given the fairly firm grip Syria still holds over Lebanon, it was only a matter of time before the unrest there found its way across the border. Today a number of Syrians in Beirut took to the streets in support of Bashar Assad's regime; two protests organised somewhat provocatively in strong Sunni areas saw violence - one demonstrator was shot in the stomach in a drive by shooting, at a second protest demonstrators were set upon by onlookers. I caught up with a around 150 protestors who were yelling Assad's praises outside the Syrian embassy. After around an hour they then proceeded to march all the way back to Dora, where they'd come from this morning.

Lebanon's secular movement finds its stride

Exhaustive counting of the protestors who turned out today to mark their displeasure with Lebanon's sectarian malaise numbered roughly between 'rather a lot' and 'bloody loads'.  It's good to see this movement gaining momentum but sadly any viable alternative  to the confessional system of (mis)governance that has been slowly poisoning this country for far too many years seems far from clear.

Marching for secularism in Lebanon

There are lots of things 'wrong' with Lebanon, and almost all of them are what makes it the incredible place that it is. Except Sectarianism. It is a cancer that rots this country, perpetuated by the old warlords of the civil war who went on to become politicians. These zaims, who draw their power from their religious constituents, have created a profoundly entrenched reliance on their patronage – a textbook case of 'divide and rule'.

A few hundred or so Lebanese citizens marched through Beirut today, despite a massive rain storm, to vent some anger over the seemingly unshakable stranglehold the Sectarian system and its leaders have over the country. Sadly, unlike other countries in the neighbourhood who've weeded out their perennial dictators, the situation in Lebanon is so goddam complicated; the day of the protest there wasn't even a government in power to overthrow.