SIDON: A Lebanese man, Elie Saad, was violently assaulted Sunday for waving a Lebanese Forces flag on his way back from Martyrs Square to the village of Tanbourit, to the east of the southern coastal city of Sidon. 

Saad was seriously wounded after unknown individuals intercepted his car on Sidon’s sea boulevard and attacked him, slashing him with sharp objects. 

Saad, who was accompanied by his wife and two children, was transferred to the emergency room at Sidon’s Hammoud Hospital. Saad said he was attacked for political reasons. “I was carrying the Lebanese Forces flag, as is my right and the right of others,” he said.