1 Injured as Cannabis Farmers Adamant to Prevent Police from Destroying their Fields
One person was injured on Saturday when cannabis farmers opened fire on a van transporting workers to help the Internal Security Forces destroy cannabis fields in the eastern Bekaa valley, the National News Agency reported.
NNA said Hussein Nayef Salim, 57, was wounded in the waist after around 15 bullets hit the van in the town of Hawsh Barada in Baalbek.
In a related development, residents of al-Yammouneh burned tires at the town’s entrances to protest the ISF operation to destroy cannabis crops.
But the Lebanese armed forces reopened the roads after firing in the air to disperse the protesters.
The incidents came a day after the Lebanese army command said two soldiers were injured after gunmen opened fire on the troops and ISF personnel in al-Yammouneh.
The soldiers fired back at the source of the shooting and the army carried out raids to arrest the suspects, while the process of eradicating the crops continued in accordance with the scheduled program, the army said.
The ISF’s general command said that around 200 dunums of cannabis fields were destroyed on Friday, upping the total areas of eradication in the Bekaa to 6,615 dunums.
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