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Battles Shift to Mount Lebanon, Moussa Returns to Beirut

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Written by News Editor

Sunday, 11 May 2008

Government supporters and opponents battled with rockets and machine guns across Mount Lebanon Sunday as Arab League assigned Secretary General Amr Moussa to head to Beirut to discuss a settlement. Beirut was quiet a day after opposition gunmen left the streets, heeding an army call for the fighters to clear out. The city had been the focus of four days of Sunni-Shiite clashes that culminated with Hizbullah seizing large swaths of Muslim West Beirut, demonstrating its military might in a showdown with the government. So far, 38 people have been killed in clashes that began Wednesday, the worst sectarian violence since Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil war. The violence grew out of a long-simmering power struggle between the Hizbullah-led opposition and the government. The opposition quit the Cabinet 17 months ago, demanding a veto over all government decisions. The deadlock has kept parliament from electing a new president since November. Analysts said the outbreak of violence improves the chances for a breakthrough in the political crisis because the opposition now has the upper hand, which could force the government to compromise. The worst violence over the weekend was outside of Beirut. On Sunday, heavy fighting broke out in the Aley district and the sounds of heavy machine gun fire and explosions from the clashes rolled across Beirut, 15 kilometers (9 miles) away. As the fighting raged in the mountain region, black smoke could be seen billowing from Druze villages. Pro-government supporters of Druze leader Walid Jumblatt and opposition gunmen exchanged rockets and machine gun fire, security officials said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media. The violence spread to the nearby towns of Kayfoun, Qamatiyeh, Bchamoun, Aytat, Shweifat, Baysour, Ras el-Jabal they said. There were no immediate reports of casualties. The clashes came a day after Hizbullah accused Jumblatt's followers of killing two of their supporters and kidnapping a third. The Aley region is predominantly Druze and Maronite Christians. However, two villages in the area are dominated by Shiites, many of them Hizbullah supporters. Jumblatt called on his top Druze opponent to mediate a cease-fire and hand over the mountain region to Lebanese troops. Shortly afterward, Talal Erslan, the leading Druze leader in the opposition, called at a news conference for all opposition groups to cease fire immediately in the mountains. He urged Jumblatt's supporters to hand over their weapons and offices to the army. Jumblatt, speaking to local LBC television, implicitly called on his militiamen to give up their positions and hand them over to the army. "I say to my followers that civil peace and stopping the war and destruction is above any other consideration," he said. Overnight, there were fierce clashes in the north, particularly in the city of Tripoli where pro-government supporters exchanged rocket propelled grenades and heavy machine gun fire with opposition followers, security officials said. One woman was killed. The clashes were over by morning when the Lebanese army deployed on the streets to separate the warring factions. The sectarian clashes began days after the government confronted Hezbollah with decision to sack the chief of airport security for alleged ties to the militant group and to declare Hizbullah 's private telephone network illegal. The army offered Hizbullah a compromise on Saturday, allowing the airport security chief to retain his post and recommending the government to reverse its decision on the phone network. At midday, Prime Minister Fouad Saniora and some of his ministers and staff observed a moment of silence at the government building in honor of those killed in violence. A nearby downtown church tolled its bells to mark the occasion. Beirut's streets were largely deserted Sunday, a day off in Lebanon. Many roads remained blocked, including the one to the airport, by the ongoing civil disobedience campaign of the opposition In the western Beirut neighborhood of Karakol Druze, which saw heavy fighting Thursday, a man swept glass outside his shop. A gaping hole from a rocket propelled grenade and bullet holes marked the facade of a normally busy bakery, now closed. There were few signs of gunmen openly carrying weapons, save for small knots of Hezbollah allies from the Syrian Social Nationalist Party sitting outside the Economy Ministry in one seaside district. On Beirut's normally bustling seaside corniche, workers outside five-star hotels cleaned blackened streets scarred by burning tires. Arab foreign ministers met in Egypt to try to find a solution to the latest deadly crisis. They called for an immediate halt to the violence and for all gunmen to pull out of Beirut and assigned Secretary General Amr Moussa to head to Beirut to discuss a settlement.(AP-Naharnet)

 

 

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