Gunman fires shots at US embassy in Lebanon, army says

By Jana Choukeir and Maya Gebeily

BEIRUT (Reuters) -A gunman fired shots at the U.S. embassy in Lebanon on Wednesday and was wounded in an exchange of fire with troops, the Lebanese army said.

The army said the attacker, a Syrian national, was detained and taken to hospital for treatment and soldiers were searching through the area for other gunmen.

The U.S. embassy said small arms fire was reported near its entrance in the morning but that the facility and staff were safe. U.S. ambassador Lisa Johnson is currently travelling outside Lebanon, according to diplomatic sources.

A Lebanese security source told Reuters on Wednesday morning that a member of the embassy's Lebanese security team was lightly wounded. White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan later confirmed to NBC News that a Lebanese guard was wounded and was receiving treatment.

The embassy said it would remain closed to the public for the rest of Wednesday but planned to be open for business as usual on Thursday, June 6.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, but another senior Lebanese security source told Reuters that the army was investigating possible links to the Islamic State group.

The source said the attacker had "ISIS" in English and "Islamic State" in Arabic written on clothes he was wearing. Lebanese security forces have detained two sheikhs as well as the attacker's family, the source added.

Reuters verified pictures of the suspected attacker circulating online and geolocated them to near the embassy. Reuters verified part of the Arabic writing on his vest, which read "Islamic."

A Reuters cameraman saw Lebanese security forces setting up checkpoints around the embassy as a U.S.-made helicopter provided to the Lebanese army circled above.

Lebanon's caretaker prime minister Najib Mikati said he was following up on the incident with the defence minister and security forces.

The U.S. embassy lies north of Beirut in a highly secured zone with multiple checkpoints along the route to the entrance. It moved there from Beirut following a suicide attack in 1983 which killed more than 60 people.

In September, shots were fired near the embassy with no injuries reported.

In mid-October, in the early days of the Gaza war, scores of protesters gathered outside the embassy to demonstrate. Lebanese security forces used tear gas and water cannons to repel them.

Lebanon has been the scene of conflict between Iran-backed Hezbollah and Israel since October in parallel to the Gaza war. Tens of thousands of people on both sides of the Israel-Lebanon border have been uprooted amid fears that the war will escalate.

The United States has been making diplomatic efforts to ease violence along the border.

In a separate incident, a member of Lebanon's internal security forces assigned to provide security at the Saudi embassy in Lebanon committed suicide outside the embassy on Wednesday, a security source and a diplomatic source said.

The security source said the embassy guard died after shooting himself in the head. The diplomatic source said he suffered from mental health conditions.

(Reporting by Jana Choukeir, Tala Ramadan in Dubai and Maya Gebeily in Beirut; Additional reporting by Ahmed Elimam and Deniz; Editing by Andrew Heavens, Philippa Fletcher, Angus MacSwan, William Maclean and Christina Fincher)