Conflict Incident Report

Authorities Wednesday removed barricades outside the Grand Serail in Downtown Beirut erected over the summer in the wake of a series of anti-government protests sparked by the garbage crisis. The steel and barb wire barricades were set up in Riad al-Solh Square to block protesters from reaching the government headquarters. Workers were seen cutting the steel gates and lifting the barb wire into trucks which carried them away. The Cabinet last month approved a controversial plan to export trash which has accumulated since July on streets in the capital and Mount Lebanon, after the notorious Naameh landfill southeast of Beirut shut down.