Thousands of supporters of the Christian party Lebanese Forces attended the funeral of a recently assassinated party official near Beirut. Pascal Sleiman, a local leader of this influential group, was kidnapped on Sunday in Jbeil (Byblos), north of Beirut.
Seven Syrians accused of being involved in this crime were arrested, including three handed over by the Syrian authorities to Lebanon, according to a judicial source. Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has denied any involvement by his party. The Lebanese authorities say they are welcoming some two million Syrians who fled the civil war that broke out in their country in 2011, the highest number of refugees per capita in the world. Nearly 800,000 are registered with the United Nations, and Human Rights Watch says the attempt to make Syrians a scapegoat threatens to fuel the violence underway in Lebanon. The ceremony was led by Maronite Patriarch Béchara Raï, spiritual leader of Lebanon's largest Christian denomination, who called for a definitive solution to the presence of Syrian refugees.