Lebanese officials and religious figures mobilized Saturday to prevent a renewal of tensions in the northern city of Tripoli after unknown assailants torched a historic library owned by a Greek Orthodox priest.
Civil Defense teams struggled to put out the flames which engulfed the bookstore owned by Father Ibrahim Srouj in the old Serail neighborhood in the city, turning one of Lebanon's most renowned libraries into rubble.
Unknown assailants torched Al-Saeh library, destroying "two thirds of some 80,000 books and manuscripts housed there,” AFP reported. [The Daily Star] Read more
