BEKAA/BEIRUT: A policeman was slightly wounded during a brief shootout in east Lebanon between gunmen and Lebanese authorities who were in the middle of a crackdown on marijuana fields.

Security sources said the policeman suffered a minor wound to the back thanks to the bullet proof vest he was wearing.

The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said bullets also hit two police vehicles during the skirmishes which saw the use of automatic gunfire and rocket-propelled grenades in the Boudai Plain on the outskirts of Baalbek, east Lebanon.

The joint security force, drawn from the Internal Security Forces and the Lebanese Army and working upon instructions from the Central Office for Drug Control, began destroying fields of cannabis early Monday.

About 30 bulldozers and tractors took part in the crackdown, which kicked off at 8 a.m. Monday.

Residents blocked Baalbek's Sharawneh road with burning tires in protest of the crackdown, but authorities managed to reopen it at around 11 a.m.