Lebanese police say US Embassy shooter was motivated by personal grudge against security guards

SMA NEWS – BEIRUT
Lebanese police said Thursday that a food delivery driver who opened fire outside the U.S. Embassy in Beirut last week allegedly did so because of a personal grudge against the guards at the compound.

The police said they had arrested the suspected shooter on Monday, identifying him only by his initials M.K. and that he later confessed to the shooting.

They cited an alleged confession by him saying he was upset as the guards had insulted him two months earlier, when he came to deliver an order.
That claim could not independently be verified.
No one was hurt in the shooting in Beirut’s northeastern Christian suburb of Aukar, which left at least five bullet holes in the wall next to the embassy entrance.

Police said that during the arrest, security forces confiscated an AK-47, a knife and the shooter’s food delivery motorcycle. The rifle was was allegedly hidden in a food delivery bag and the shooter changed his route to reach the U.S. Embassy compound to avoid Lebanese army checkpoints on the main road.