BEIRUT - A journalist working for media close to Lebanon's anti-Syrian parliamentary majority said on Friday he was beaten up by supporters of a rival camp at a rally in Beirut.

Omar Harkous, who works for Al-Mustaqbal newspaper and Future television, told reporters from his hospital bed that he was attacked by about 20 supporters of the Syrian Social Nationalist Party (SSNP). He said the assailants struck him on the head and body as he covered an SSNP rally in Beirut on Thursday and ordered him to leave after they realised he works for Future, a station owned by parliamentary majority leader Saad Hariri.

"They started shouting that I was a Jew, that I was their enemy and that I must leave," he said. The army said three suspects had been detained for the attack, while the SSNP, a pro-Syrian party, expressed regrets over the incident and called for it not to be exploited for political ends. A sit-in was to be held later on Friday in protest at the attack.

During deadly clashes in May between supporters of the parliamentary majority headed by Hariri and its Hezbollah-led opponents, the Shiite group forced the closure of all Hariri's media outlets for several days.