BEIRUT — A Lebanese Cabinet minister says gunmen opened fire at his convoy in a mountain village near Beirut, killing one of his guards and wounding another.

Saleh al-Gharib, the minister of state handling refugee issues, told local TV he was heading to the mountain village of Qabr Shamoun when his convoy came under fire.

Al-Gharib is a member of a party allied with the militant Hezbollah group and supportive of the Syrian government.

It was not clear who opened fire, but the area was tense Sunday as supporters of a party opposed to the Syrian government closed roads to prevent Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil from touring the region.

The Lebanese army sent reinforcements to the area.

The Lebanese are fiercely divided over the civil war in neighboring Syria. </s> Gunmen have opened fire on the convoy of a Lebanese minister in a mountain village near Beirut, killing two of his guards and wounding another, in what he called an assassination attempt.

Saleh al-Gharib, the minister of state handling refugee issues, told local TV he was heading to the mountain village of Qabr Shamoun when his convoy came under fire on Sunday.

In an interview with Lebanon's al-Jadeed TV, Gharib, who is a member of a party allied with Hezbollah and supportive of the Syrian government, said "what happened was an armed ambush and a clear assassination attempt".

It was not clear who opened fire, but the area was tense as supporters of a party opposed to the Syrian government closed roads to prevent Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil from touring the region.

The Lebanese army sent reinforcements to the area.

The Lebanese are fiercely divided over the civil war in neighbouring Syria. Al-Gharib is close to pro-Syrian Druze leader, Talal Arslan.

The area, where the incident took place near the city of Aley, is loyal to anti-Damascus Druze leader Walid Jumblatt, whose Progressive Socialist Party denied any involvement in the incident. </s> BEIRUT — Lebanon's top defense council has ordered an investigation into a deadly shooting that left two people dead and others wounded.

The Higher Defense Council held a meeting Monday attended by the president, prime minister, Cabinet ministers and heads of Lebanon's security and military agencies.

The meeting came a day after a shooting in a mountain village near Beirut killed two guards of Saleh al-Gharib, the minister of state handling refugee issues.

The shooting came as supporters of the Progressive Socialist Party, led by Druze leader Walid Jumblatt, closed roads to prevent Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil from touring the region. Bassil and al-Gharib are allies.

The Higher Defense Council said in a statement that it "took decisive decisions to restore security without hesitation and to detain all those wanted." </s> Alwaght- Two aids of Lebanon’s minister of refugee affairs were killed in an “assassination attempt” against Saleh al-Gharib who survived the ambush.

The Druze minister came under attack on Sunday when his convoy was making its way through the Mount Lebanon town near Aley, which is loyal to Druze leader Walid Jumblatt. Jumblatt's Popular Progressive Party (PSP), however, has denied any involvement in the incident.

Two other people were injured in the attack, according to social media reports.

"What happened was an armed ambush and a clear assassination attempt," Gharib told Lebanon's al-Jadeed TV.

"There appears to be a decision to blow up the situation on the Mountain (a reference to the mountainous Chouf District, which is located southeast of the Lebanese capital)," said Gharib.

The attack comes on the heels of tensions that were ignited by a visit by Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil to the area earlier in the day. His visit caused led protesters to block roads (shown in the following video), prompting Bassil to call off the visit.

Lebanese Defense Minister Elias Bou Saab called for calm, telling the LBC network that the army had placed a large number of forces in the area .

Akram Chehayeb, a senior PSP official and minister of education, also urged calm, saying: "What happened is the result of poor judgement by some officials and is a recipe for strife on the Mountain."

The attack comes amid an ongoing debate over the fate of the Syrian refugees who have fled their war-torn country and entered Lebanese territories over the past years.

More than one million Syrian refugees are registered with the High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Lebanon.

The Beirut government estimates that the true number of Syrians in Lebanon stands at 1.5 million. </s> BEIRUT (AP) — A Lebanese Cabinet minister said gunmen opened fire at his convoy in a mountain village near Beirut on Sunday, killing two of his guards and wounding another.

Saleh al-Gharib, the minister of state handling refugee issues, told local TV he was heading to the mountain village of Qabr Shamoun when his convoy came under fire. Al-Gharib is a member of a Druze party allied with the militant Hezbollah group and supportive of the Syrian government.

The Druze follow an offshoot of Shiite Islam. Like most Lebanese, they are fiercely divided over the war in neighboring Syria, with some supporting President Bashar Assad’s government and others aligned with the opposition.

The shooting came as supporters of the Progressive Socialist Party, led by Druze leader Walid Jumblatt, closed roads to prevent Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil from touring the region. Jumblatt’s party is opposed to Assad.

The PSP said in a statement that al-Gharib’s guards opened fire “randomly” at a group of people who were closing the road to prevent Bassil from passing. It said a PSP supporter was wounded in the shooting, and that others who had weapons opened fire at al-Gharib’s convoy, killing two of his guards.

“What happened was an armed ambush and a clear assassination attempt,” al-Gharib told the local Al-Jadeed TV.

The area where the shooting took place witnessed some of the worst fighting and sectarian killings during Lebanon’s 1975-1990 civil war. Tensions in the area remain high decades later.

Prime Minister Saad Hariri called officials from the rival parties as well as heads of security agencies, urging them to restore calm.

Druze spiritual leader Sheikh Naim Hassan called on members of the sect to calm the situation and urged state institutions to open an investigation into the shooting.

The Lebanese army sent reinforcements to the area. </s> Gunmen have opened fire on the convoy of a Lebanese minister in a mountain village near Beirut, killing two of his guards and wounding another, in what he called an assassination attempt.

Saleh al-Gharib, the minister of state handling refugee issues, told local TV he was heading to the mountain village of Qabr Shamoun when his convoy came under fire on Sunday.

"What happened was an armed ambush and a clear assassination attempt," al-Gharib said in an interview with Lebanon's al-Jadeed TV.

Gharib is a member of a party allied with Hezbollah and supportive of the Syrian government, and has close ties with pro-Syrian Druze leader Talal Arslan.

"Despite bloodshed, we are working to calm the situation," al-Gharib told Lebanese newspaper Annahar.

Lebanese state news agency NNA reported that the violence erupted in 30km southeast of Beirut, where followers of the Lebanese Progressive Socialist Party (PSP), a vocal critic of the Syrian government, had blocked a road to prevent Foreign Minister Jubran Bassil, an ally of the Syria-allied Hezbollah movement, from visiting the area.



As al-Gharib's convoy tried to pass, an argument followed by shooting took place between both sides, leaving three bodyguards and a PSP follower injured, NNA added.



Two of the three bodyguards later died of injuries at the hospital.

The PSP said in a statement that al-Gharib's guards opened fire "randomly" at a group of people who were closing the road to prevent Bassil from passing.

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It said a PSP supporter was wounded in the shooting, and that others who had weapons opened fire at al-Gharib's convoy, killing two of his guards.

The PSP is led by Druze leader Walid Jumblatt. Like most Lebanese, the Druze are fiercely divided over the war in neighboring Syria, with some supporting President Bashar al-Assad's government and others aligned with the opposition.

Lebanese President Michel Aoun called for the country's Higher

Defence Council to meet on Monday to discuss the incident.

The Lebanese army sent reinforcements to the area.

The area, where the incident took place near the city of Aley, is loyal to anti-Damascus Druze leader Walid Jumblatt, whose Progressive Socialist Party denied any involvement in the incident. </s> Beirut [Lebanon], July 1 (ANI): Two bodyguards accompanying a Lebanese minister were killed and one other sustained injury after gunmen open fired on their convoy near country's capital Beirut on Sunday.

The incident took place in the Mount Lebanon town, when the convoy of Saleh al-Gharib, the minister of state handling refugee affairs, reportedly tried to pass through the blockades, which were placed to oppose a visit by Lebanese Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil in the area, reported Al Arabiya.

The barricades were placed by the followers of the Lebanese Progressive Socialist Party (PSP). The party, in turn, has claimed that the minister's bodyguards fired on the protestors despite their attempts to open the road and remove the blockades.

In an interview with Lebanon's al-Jadeed TV, Gharib said that "what happened was an armed ambush and a clear assassination attempt."

The area where the incident took place is loyal to anti-Damascus Druze leader Walid Jumblatt, a fierce opponent of the Syrian government.

Meanwhile, Lebanese Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri has held a series of contacts with the Druze parties, security chiefs and Bassil to de-escalate the tensions between rival factions in the country. (ANI) </s> Beirut: Two bodyguards of a Lebanese Druze minister were killed on Sunday when his convoy came under fire as it passed through an area loyal to a rival Druze faction, in what the minister called an assassination attempt.

Saleh Al Gharib, Lebanon's minister of state for refugee affairs, is close to pro-Syrian Druze leader Talal Arslan. The area where the incident took place near Aley is loyal to anti-Damascus Druze leader Walid Jumblatt, whose Popular Progressive Party denied any involvement in the incident.

In an interview with Lebanon's al-Jadeed TV, Gharib said "what happened was an armed ambush and a clear assassination attempt". </s> Two government officials died on Sunday in what government minister Saleh al-Gharib described as an assassination effort.

Al-Gharib's convoy came under fire as it passed through the mountain village of Qabrshmoun, near the capital, Beirut.

Read more: Syrian refugees risk journey home amid dire situation in Lebanon

The minister, who escaped unharmed, said the incident appeared to have been aimed at increasing tension in the Mount Lebanon area.

Al-Gharib, a minister of state for refugee affairs and a member of the Druze ethnic group, said the incident had been "an armed ambush and a clear assassination attempt."

However, the Progressive Socialist Party (PSP) said the shooting started after al-Gharib's guards opened fire "randomly" at a group of people who were blocking the road.

The shooting took place after supporters of the PSP — led by another Druze politican, Walid Jumblatt — gathered to close roads and stop a visit to the area by Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil, a party colleague of al-Gharib.

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According to Lebanon's Naharnet online news site, Lebanese Democratic Party sources said the assassination effort was aimed at Bassil. The sources said the gunmen did not know the convoy belonged to al-Gharib.

The Druze — who make up a large part of the population in the Aley district where the incident took place — follow an offshoot of Shiite Islam, but are bitterly divided over the war in neighboring Syria. Some, including al-Gharib, support the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, while others are opposed to the administration in Damascus.

Read more: The Druze: The Middle East's most persecuted people?

Some of the worst fighting during Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil took place in the Mount Lebanon area, where tensions remain high decades later.

Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri called security chiefs and officials from the rival parties, urging them to restore calm after the incident.

Since January, Lebanon has been governed by a national unity cabinet which includes al-Gharib's Free Patriotic Movement and the PSP, as well as other parties from across the political divide.

rc/aw (AP, Reuters)

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Gunmen open fire, killing two guards and wounding another for Lebanese Refugee Affairs Minister, Saleh al-Gharib. This attack happened in a mountain village near Beirut, Lebanon.