Gunman fires shots at US Embassy in Beirut

A gunman fired shots at the US Embassy in Lebanon on Wednesday and was injured in an exchange of fire with the army.

The army said the attacker, a Syrian national, was taken to hospital for treatment and that it was continuing to comb the area.

The US Embassy said "small arms fire" was reported in the vicinity of its entrance at around 8:34 a.m. local time, adding that its facility and team were safe.

A security source told Reuters that a member of the embassy’s security team was wounded in the attack, and that the Lebanese army wounded one of the attackers in the stomach and was combing through the area to find the other attackers.

The embassy lies north of Beirut in a highly secured zone with multiple checkpoints along the route to the entrance. It moved there from Beirut following a suicide attack in 1983 which killed more than 60 people.

In September, shots were fired near the embassy with no injuries reported.

In October, scores of protesters gathered outside the embassy to demonstrate in the early days of the Gaza war, and Lebanese security forces used teargas and water cannons to repel them.