Beirut - Lebanon's Shiite Hezbollah partisans on Thursday attacked and kidnapped a police officer in south Beirut in the second such development in as many days, security sources reported. The sources said the police officer was investigating an illegal construction site in the suburb of Ghadir when he was beaten up by two local residents.
Hezbollah members drove in, kidnapped the officer and whisked him to a Hezbollah office where he was illegally interrogated by party officials on the activities of the police force.
The officer told his superiors later Hezbollah officials set him free only because he was a Shiite Muslim.
Hezbollah partisans attacked a police patrol in the eastern mountainous town of Qmatiyeh Wednesday evening and release from police custody two wanted criminals, who remain at large.
