The main entrance of the US embassy in Awkar, north of Beirut, targeted by gunfire Wednesday, Sept. 20, 2023. (Credit: Mohammad Yassin/L'Orient Today)
BEIRUT — A man accused of opening fire at the entrance of the American Embassy in Beirut on Sept. 20 and, in a separate incident, at the headquarters of Beirut's General Security, has been charged with "crimes of rebellion and attempted homicide against members of General Security," the state-run National News Agency (NNA) reported Wednesday.
The charges, pressed by the assistant magistrate to the Military Court, Judge Hani Helmi al-Hajjar, has been forwarded to the investigating judge at the military court, Fadi Sawan, for questioning, NNA adds.
Prior to this, the Military Tribunal Prosecutor Fadi Akiki, had reduced his charges to "threats with the use of a gun."
The Internal Security Forces (ISF) announced 20 days ago that M.K., 27, had confessed to having shot at other embassies in the past.
"A comparison between the weapon found in the individual's possession and the empty cartridge cases found at the scene of the shootings proved positive," said the ISF press release.
In an earlier statement published September 28, the ISF said that the shooter was a delivery man who had sought "revenge" after being humiliated by American embassy security personnel.
No casualties resulted from the Sept. 20 attack, though several shots were fired at the entrance of the embassy in the northern suburb of Awkar. The incident occurred on the day of the commemoration of the 1984 car bomb explosion outside an annex of the American embassy, which Washington attributed to Hezbollah. That attack killed 11 people and injured dozens more.
Some embassy operations moved to the Awkar premises during the Lebanese civil war (1975-1990), after a suicide bombing destroyed the embassy on Apr. 1983, killing 63 people. That attack was claimed by Islamic Jihad, a group the US linked to Hezbollah.