Pictures shared with The Daily Star that showed around 200 Berri supporters blocking a coastal intersection in Tyre. He also shared a picture of a destroyed portrait of President Michel Aoun near an FPM office in the Bekaa area of Rachaya.

Bassil’s “thug” remark was the tip of the iceberg of long-simmering tension between the FPM and the Amal Movement that has its roots in Berri’s staunch opposition to the election of Michel Aoun as president in 2016. It is also a reflection of the open-ended political confrontation between Aoun and Berri over a decree that seeks to promote a number of Army officers who served under Aoun in the late 1980s when he was Army commander.