BEIRUT: Classes resumed at the Lebanese American University Wednesday after clashes between supporters of rival political groups left seven students and the head of campus security injured.

Students said a security force that was dispatched to LAU Tuesday, following the midday fight, maintained its presence.

“Lebanese Army soldiers [can be] seen outside the university,” one student told The Daily Star by telephone.

A joint security force of Lebanese troops and members of the Internal Security Forces was called in shortly after the fight broke out Tuesday between partisans of former Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s Future Movement and supporters of Speaker Nabih Berri’s Amal Movement.

LAU students said seven undergraduates were injured in the fight as they saw chairs, trash cans, stones and other hard objects being hurled at the university’s upper gate.

The head of LAU’s security unit, Maj. Ahmad Hassouna, was also injured in the brawl and two students remained in the hospital.

According to an LAU professor, Hassouna had been struck by a helmet and was doing well after being treated for his injury.

Witnesses said the fight was sparked after Amal-affiliated students shouted slogans in support of Berri as a Future Movement convoy drove past the university’s upper gate playing songs in celebration of the late Rafik Hariri’s birthday, which falls on Nov. 1.

Hariri, a former Lebanese prime minister, was killed in 2005.

LAU released a statement hours after the clashes canceling classes Tuesday, adding that they would resume the following day.

LAU’s Dean of Students Raed Mohsen said everything was “back to normal” Wednesday, and that the university “looked like a totally different campus” compared to Tuesday. He told The Daily Star that the army’s presence at many of the university’s gates might have contributed to a calmer atmosphere, and said it would maintain its presence Thursday, adding that the clashes are being investigated.

A statement from the Future Movement Youth Sector denounced “the repeated practices of March 8 students during every activity held at the Lebanese American University.”

The statement accused students supporting the Hezbollah-led March 8 coalition of “launching an attack on Future [movement] students during celebrations commemorating the birthday of martyr Rafik Hariri.”

It said the clash broke out upon arrival of the participants to the campus.

“They were surprised by a crowd of March 8 students who greeted them with abusive words against martyr Rafik Hariri, the Future Movement and religious authorities,” the statement added.

The scuffle featured in a legislative session of Parliament Wednesday, when Bint Jbeil MP Hasan Fadlallah, a Hezbollah official, accused the Future Movement of turning Qoreitem into a “security zone,” adding that March 8 students had been attacked by Future Movement party members.

A security source told The Daily Star Tuesday that the clash had been triggered by an argument as pro-Hariri students distributed fliers on the occasion of Hariri’s birthday.