Five Noteworthy Stories You Might Have Missed in Lebanon This Week (4/19)

You’re busy, we get it. No sweat. Here’s some of the most important news stories you might have missed from the past week.

1. Three Al-Manar Staff Killed in Syria
(Image via Daily Star)

On Monday, three of Al-Manar TV’s staff were killed in the Syrian town of Maaloula. The television crew members were identified as reporter Hamzah Hajj Hassan, 29, technician Halim Allaw and cameraman Mohammad Mantash. Other crew members were wounded in the incident but survived.

The station broadcast footage of the bullet-riddled four-wheel drive vehicle that the four men were traveling in when the attack took place.

The fatal attack was strongly condemned by Lebanese politicians and described by Lebanese President Michel Sleiman as an “act of cowardice.” The crew members were praised as “martyrs.”

2. Video: Pregnant Woman Delivers Baby on Zalkaa Road


LBC News obtained footage on Thursday of a pregnant Lebanese woman giving birth on the side of the road in the region of Zalkaa. Footage on You Tube showed the woman lying on the ground and wrapped in a blanket as members of the Red Cross helped her deliver the baby.

3. A Spate of Violent Incidents Rock the Country
(Image via Daily Star)

A 17-year-old Syrian refugee girl was shot and killed in the northern town of Minyeh earlier this week. Raghd Al-Bakhas was working on a farm in the early hours of Tuesday morning when an unidentified man approached her and allegedly tried to rape her.

Khass fought off the man and ran away seconds before he shot her in the back at close range.

On the same day, the body of a Syrian man identified as Muhannad al-Aatli, 45, was found inside his room in the area of al-Saadiyat in the Shouf. According to Naharnet, the man was stabbed multiple times and was set on fire. Al-Saadiyat police launched an investigation into the murder. In a similar crime, a chopped up body was found in a garbage container in the Ouzai district of Beirut’s southern suburbs. Police have not yet identified the victim.

On Monday, the body of Syrian child Nimr Khaled al-Dous, 6, was found hanging from a tree outside his family’s home in Shhim’s al-Karm al-Atiq neighborhood in the Shouf district.

4. Baalbek Festival Organizers Say This Year’s Festival Will Return to Baalbek
(Image via Executive Magazine)

After the relocation of the festival last year due to security concerns, organizers say the Baalbek International Music Festival will return to its original location. “This year, we are planning to be in Baalbeck,” Nayla de Freige, president of Baalbeck International Festival’s executive committee, told Executive Magazine.

De Freige is hopeful that the newly launched security plan in the Bekaa will succeed, thus increasing confidence in the region and allowing the festival to have a successful return.

5. Sheikh Attacked in Ain el-Hilweh Succumbs to Injuries
(Image via last week in the Palestinian refugee camp of Ain el-Hilweh, the head of the Association of Islamic Charitable Projects, Sheikh Orsan Suleiman, succumbed on Tuesday to his injuries.

Suleiman was shot last Wednesday as he was leaving a memorial service for an aid worker who died during clashes at the Mieh Mieh refugee camp near the southern city of Saida.

Around eight people were killed and ten others wounded last Monday in the fierce clashes at the camp.