Nineteen Injured In Clashes Between Protesters, Army In Lebanon's Tripoli - Red Cross

Nineteen Injured in Clashes Between Protesters, Army in Lebanon's Tripoli - Red Cross

Nineteen people, both soldiers and protesters, have been hospitalized with injuries following the clashes in the Jabal Mohsen neighborhood in the Lebanese city of Tripoli, the secretary general of the Lebanese Red Cross told Sputnik on Friday

MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 16th July, 2021) Nineteen people, both soldiers and protesters, have been hospitalized with injuries following the clashes in the Jabal Mohsen neighborhood in the Lebanese city of Tripoli, the secretary general of the Lebanese Red Cross told Sputnik on Friday.

"19 people have been transferred by the Lebanese Red Cross to hospitals, including members of the Lebanese Army and civilians ... injuries included blunt trauma injuries resulting from stones and sticks, with no serious injuries," Georges Kettaneh said.

The operations center in the Emergency Relief Corps, an NGO that provides emergency services in Tripoli, told Sputnik earlier on Friday that 10 of the initially reported 15 injuries were members of the Lebanese armed forces, with injuries resulting from shrapnel, bleeding, and asphyxiation.

"The injured have been transferred to hospitals, mainly the Tripoli public hospital in addition to the Al-Salam, Al-Mazloum, and Notre Dame hospitals," Kettaneh added.

Regarded as one of the poorest neighborhoods in the country's poorest city, the inhabitants of Jabal-Mohsen district were hit hard by Lebanon's ongoing financial meltdown, with locals taking to the streets on Friday as the national Currency took a sharp dive against the US Dollar.

Having depreciated by a factor of 15 since the onset of the national economic crisis, the pound registered its all-time low after the resignation of Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri on Thursday. The announcement came following the breakdown of negotiations nine months after Hariri's appointment, with the elites unable to reach a consensus in forming a cabinet to unlock a vital IMF bailout.