BEIRUT (AP) — Lebanese troops moved to subdue a crowd of frenzied Syrian voters who tried to storm their embassy in Beirut to vote for President Bashar Assad as expat balloting started in Syria’s presidential election.
The soldiers were beating up the Syrians some 50 meters (yards) from the embassy building, using batons and sticks in an effort to get the crowd under control on Wednesday.
Thousands of Assad supporters had crowded the hilltop embassy and snarled traffic outside. Clashes broke out when the Syrians started clashing with the Lebanese soldiers in an effort to get into the embassy.
The Syrian opposition and its Western allies have denounced the June 3 election as a sham designed to lend Assad a veneer of electoral legitimacy.
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