Lebanese Option Party rallies outside Iranian Embassy

   
The Lebanese Option Party staged on Sunday a sit-in outside the Iranian Embassy in Bir Hassan - Beirut, in memory of Hashem al-Salman, who was killed when clashes erupted during a rally staged on Sunday the 9th of June.

The protesters held red roses and the Lebanese flag to express their rejection to the Lebanese participation in the Syrian war.                

The Lebanese Armed Forces were deployed around the embassy in order to prevent the demonstrators from going near the building.                

Men wielding batons and wearing yellow arm bands evoking Lebanon's Hezbollah attacked protesters outside the Iranian Embassy in Beirut Sunday June 9, 2013, during a rally against the group's participation in the Syrian civil war.          

One protester was killed, a senior Lebanese military official and witnesses said.

A military statement said the protesters had just arrived at the embassy area when clashes broke out and a civilian opened fire. It was unclear if they were affiliated with the group, and the identity of the gunman was unknown, a senior security official said.

The official identified the man killed as a 28-year-old member of the small Lebanese Option Party, which had called for the anti-Hezbollah protest.

The Syria conflict is increasingly spilling over into Lebanon. Hezbollah's participation in the conflict, backing forces of Syria's President Bashar Assad in a successful campaign to drive rebels out of al-Qusayr near the Lebanese border, heightened tensions.

The Lebanese Option Party is headed by a Shiite politician, Ahmad El Assaad, who has long been opposed to Hezbollah. Sunday's clash outside the Iranian Embassy marked rare fighting between two opposing Shiite groups.