by WorldTribune Staff, April 23, 2018
An opposition candidate and vocal critic of Hizbullah was attacked as he put up a campaign poster in his southern Lebanon hometown, a report said.
A group of men assaulted the candidate, journalist Ali al-Amin, who is challenging the Hizbullah party in the May 6 legislative election.
“I was hanging up the very first picture of myself at the bottom of my street in Shaqra, just 100 meters away from my house,” Amin told AFP.
The men demanded he take the campaign poster down, but he refused and the mob began beating him, Amin said.
“I’m at the hospital now. My tooth is broken, I have very severe back pain and was hit in the head,” he said.
Amin, who is running in the polls as a Shi’ite Muslim, directly blamed Hizbullah, saying, “It was an organized group of well-known guys, authorized by Hizbullah.”
“This incident won’t affect us, we’re still going to run,” Amin said. “But we want the world to see what kind of elections will be held under Hizbullah.”
Hizbullah “and its ally the Amal movement are the two most powerful political forces in the predominantly Shi’ite southern district of Bint Jbeil, where Amin’s hometown lies,” Arutz Sheva noted in an April 23 report.
The May 6 legislative vote will be the first in Lebanon since 2009. Hizbullah is a member of Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s cabinet.
Both Hizbullah’s armed and political wings are considered terror organizations by the United States. The European Union has blacklisted Hizbullah’s military wing, but not its political arm.
In a press conference with Hariri last July, U.S. President Donald Trump said Hizbullah poses a threat to the entire Middle East and accused the group and Iran of fueling a humanitarian disaster in Syria.
“Hizbullah is a menace to the Lebanese state, the Lebanese people and the entire region. The group continues to increase its military arsenal which threatens to start yet another conflict with Israel… With the support of Iran, the organization is also fueling humanitarian catastrophe in Syria,” Trump said.
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