Syrian Soldiers Reportedly Raid Beirut Campus, Beat Students

Syrian troops stormed dormitories at the American University of Beirut overnight and beat dozens of students with rifle butts, witnesses said Friday.

It was the second Syrian raid on the campus in eight months, and it apparently was prompted in part by challenges to Syria’s police role in Muslim West Beirut.

At least 50 students, most of them Lebanese, were taken to American University Hospital, said one witness, and all but 14 of them had to be hospitalized.

The witnesses, who requested anonymity, said the raid began after a student returned late Thursday, found the dormitory gates locked and tried to climb the wall that surrounds the expansive campus. The only open gate was about half a mile away.

Syrian soldiers caught him and beat him up, the witnesses said, and then, “when (the student) showed up at the dormitory with blood all over his face and head, his colleagues rushed down after midnight and shouted protests at the Syrians. Shortly afterward, the Syrians stormed the dorms.”

Classes were suspended Friday, and about 400 students demonstrated to protest what they called Syrian highhandedness.

Last week, 13 people were killed and 110 were wounded in bombings at Beirut’s Syrian-policed airport and at the American University Hospital, also guarded by Syrians.

Two Soldiers Killed

On Thursday, two Syrian soldiers were shot to death.

Since the bombings, only one entrance to the campus has been open, and students have had to line up for careful security checks.

The university’s board of deans, in a statement, called on students to “exercise maximum tolerance and understanding” for the campus security measures.

The university, a private institution under a charter from the state of New York, has an enrollment of about 5,000. Its students and faculty have been victims of kidnapers believed to be pro-Iranian Shia Muslims.

Since 1985, 10 teachers, staff members or students from the university have been abducted. Four died, three escaped or were released and three, including two Americans, are among 22 foreigners abducted and held in Lebanon.