Calm returns to Beirut after Shiite riots over TV program mocking Hezbollah leader

Photo: Calm returns to Beirut after Shiite riots over TV program mocking Hezbollah leader

Calm returns to Beirut after Shiite riots over TV program mocking Hezbollah leader

Black soot from burned tires and rocks littered some streets and neighborhoods in Beirut's southern suburbs, a Hezbollah stronghold. Other obstructions were pushed to the side of the road as motorists drove by on Friday, a normal working day.

The riots began shortly before midnight (2100 GMT) Thursday and lasted for a few hours after the Lebanese Broadcasting Corp. - a privately owned Christian channel - aired the show in which an actor spoofed Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, wearing the Hezbollah leader's trademark black turban and sported a similar beard and spectacles.

Several thousand Hezbollah supporters took to the streets of southern Beirut and villages in southern and eastern Lebanon, where they blocked roads and burned car tires, Lebanese officials said. They carried pictures of Nasrallah and shouted words of support. They also blocked the highway to Lebanon's international airport, but officials there said the country's only airport remained open.

Rioters began dispersing early Friday after Nasrallah, speaking on Hezbollah's Al-Manar television by telephone early Friday, appealed to his supporters "to end the gatherings and go home." Also, the producer of the TV program apologized, saying he did not mean to offend Nasrallah.

Police did not interfere, but security officials said soldiers were deployed along some areas of the former demarcation line between Christian and Muslim neighborhoods of south Beirut to prevent sectarian friction, the AP reports.