Druze sheikh killed in Lebanon shooting

Druze cleric Sheikh Salman al-Harfani has died after a shooting at his textile shop in Hasbayya, southern Lebanon. “Medical investigation revealed that the cleric has received five gunshots from a five millimetre calibre pistol,” National News Agency reported. Other Druze leaders have responded to the attack, holding an emergency meeting in Hasbayya to condemn what they called a “heinous crime.” Sectarian violence is on the rise in Lebanon. Dar al-Fatwa clerics Sheikh Mazen Hariri and Sheikh Ahmed Fakhran were also attacked in the Shiite-majority area of Khandaq al-Ghamiq earlier in March while two other clerics, one of them identified as Omar al-Imami, were attacked in the southern Beirut suburb of Shiyyah.