Lebanese security forces barred some 200 university students from approaching the US embassy in Beirut where they wanted to protest "Washington's pro-Israel policy."
The army and anti-riot police blocked the group from coming closer than 500 meters (500 yards) from the embassy grounds, located in the northern suburb of Awkar, an AFP correspondent said.
The students, responding to a call from leftist groups like the youth wing of the Progressive Socialist Party of Walid Jumblatt, shouted anti-American slogans before dispersing peacefully.
Numerous protests have taken place in Arab capitals since a new Palestinian uprising erupted on September 28 over a hawkish Israeli opposition leader's visit to a site in east Jerusalem, which is holy to both Muslims and Jews.
Protests turned violent outside the US embassy in Damascus in early October, with protestors smashing windows at the embassy on one occasion and clashing heavily with police on another.
Meanwhile in south Lebanon on Wednesday, nearly 7,000 Palestinians demonstrated in two refugee camps to support the eight-week-old uprising in the Palestinian territories, an AFP correspondent added.
In the Rashidye, near Tyre, 5,000 people protested in response to a call from Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement, while 2,000 others demonstrated at Ain Helwe, near Sidon -- BEIRUT (AFP)
© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
