Two Leftists Escape Ambush in Beirut
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BEIRUT — Druze and Shia Muslim militiamen fought gun battles in West Beirut on Sunday after an assassination attempt on two leftist leaders whose car was ambushed.
The targets of the assassination were Mustafa Saad, leader of the Popular Liberation Army militia, which controls the predominantly Sunni Muslim port of Sidon in south Lebanon, and his brother Osama.
The Saads were en route to Sidon from a meeting with the Arab Socialist Union in West Beirut when attackers raked their motorcade with machine-gun fire on Beirut’s southern outskirts, police reported.
The Saads escaped unharmed in their bulletproof Mercedes-Benz limousine, but two of their escorts from the Progressive Socialist Party were killed and that party’s security chief in West Beirut, Abu Haitham, and four bodyguards were wounded, police said.
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