Kuwait bans Travel to Lebanon

The Gulf state of Kuwait on Monday urged its citizens to avoid travel to Lebanon and also asked those already present there to leave after deadly clashes linked to the Syrian conflict left two people killed in Beirut.

The foreign ministry called on Kuwaitis to cancel travel plans to Lebanon “due to developments in the tense security situation.”

The ministry’s statement, carried by the official KUNA news agency, also urged Kuwaitis currently in Lebanon to leave the Arab country “for their safety.”

Kuwait’s move follows a similar decision on Saturday by its Gulf partners the UAE, Qatar and Bahrain.

The Kuwaiti call comes after gun battles between pro- and anti-Syrian groups rocked Beirut overnight Monday, killing at least two people.

An office housing a small pro-Syrian party in Tareek el-Jdideh, a mainly Sunni Muslim neighborhood of west Beirut, was torched during the clashes.

The fighting erupted hours after reports that army troops had shot dead Sheikh Ahmad Abdul Wahad, a prominent anti-Syria Sunni cleric, near a checkpoint in north Lebanon on Sunday. Another cleric in the car was also killed.

Their killing followed a week of clashes between Sunnis hostile to the Syrian regime and Alawites who support Syrian President Bashar al-Assad that left 10 people dead in Lebanon’s northern port city of Tripoli.

 

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