Press TV staff attacked in Beirut

A team of reporters from Press TV satellite news network have come under attack by an angry mob of caretaker Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s supporters.

The journalists’ convoy was assaulted on Tuesday as the team was relaying a report to the channel’s office in Tehran.

Press TV correspondent Mariam Saleh who was reporting the riots by Hariri supporters in Beirut sustained injuries in the attack.

The clash came to an end after the Lebanese army intervened.

The rioters who have been blocking roads and burning tires in several Lebanese cities also attacked a convoy belonging to the Qatari-based al-Jazeera news channel. They destroyed the vehicle before setting it ablaze.

The violence comes after Hariri’s cabinet collapsed due to the resignation of 11 opposition ministers over a US-backed tribunal probing the assassination of his farther, late Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri, back in 2005.

The move was prompted by the Hariri administration’s inaction toward the controversial court amid reports of an impending anti-resistance indictment by the US-backed tribunal.

On Tuesday, Lebanese President Michel Sleiman appointed opposition-backed Najib Mikati as the country’s new prime minister after he won a parliamentary majority needed for the post.