| Associated Press |
BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) — Hezbollah gunmen seized control of several Beirut neighborhoods from Sunni foes loyal to the U.S.-backed government on Friday as sectarian clashes reminiscent of Lebanon's bloody 15-year civil war raged in the capital.
At least 11 people have been killed and more than 20 wounded in three days of street battles and gunfights, security officials said.
About 100 Shiite Hezbollah militants wearing camouflage uniforms and carrying assault rifles marched down Hamra Street, a normally vibrant commercial strip in a mainly Sunni area of Beirut. They took up positions in corners and sidewalks and stopped the few cars braving the empty streets to search their trunks.
On nearby streets, dozens of fighters from another Hezbollah-allied party appeared, some wearing masks and carrying rocket-propelled grenade launchers.
In another sign that the Hezbollah-led opposition was gaining steam, the satellite TV station affiliated with the party of Lebanon's top Sunni lawmaker, Saad Hariri, was forced off the air Friday. Gunmen also set the offices of the party's newspaper, Al-Mustaqbal, on fire in the coastal neighborhood of Ramlet el-Bayda.
Lebanon's army, which has stayed out of the sectarian political squabbling that has paralyzed the country for more than a year, only intervened after the building was set ablaze. Troops provided cover for firefighters, who eventually extinguished the flames.
The army also evacuated employees from the TV station, but only after gunmen massed near it and threatened to destroy it, said Nadim Mounla, the station's chief.
Meanwhile, a rocket-propelled grenade hit the fence of Hariri's heavily protected residence, security officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not allowed to speak to the media.
Hariri and his ally, Druse lawmaker Walid Jumblatt, were besieged in their homes, and Prime Minister Fuad Saniora and several ministers were holed up in Saniora's downtown office surrounded by troops and police.
The escalating fighting could have implications for the entire Middle East at a time when Sunni-Shiite tensions are high. The tensions are fueled in part by the rivalry between predominantly Shiite Iran, which sponsors Hezbollah, and Sunni Arab countries like Saudi Arabia and Egypt.
The crackle of gunfire and occasional explosions continued to reverberate across the western, largely Muslim, sector of Beirut Friday.
On Hamra Street and in other neighborhoods once dominated by government supporters, Shiite gunmen roamed unopposed. Dozens of cars and shops had been damaged by the fighting.
"We entered Karakol Druse. There is no Jumblatt and no Hariri here," a Shiite gunman told Associated Press Television News.
"We entered the neighborhood. They threw away their weapons and ran," said another gunman as one of his colleagues tore down a poster of Hariri.
The scenes were a grim reminder of Lebanon's devastating 1975-90 civil war in which 150,000 were killed and parts of the city wrecked as it was carved into warring sectarian enclaves.
Street clashes exploded into gunbattles in parts of Beirut on Thursday afternoon after Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah accused Lebanon's Western-backed government of declaring war on his Shiite militant group. It was the militant leader's strongest comments since Lebanon's political crisis erupted 17 months ago.
Hariri later went on television urging Hezbollah to pull its fighters back and "save Lebanon from hell." He proposed a compromise that would involve the army, one of the sole national institutions respected by Lebanon's long deadlocked factions.
But Hezbollah and its allies swiftly rejected the offer.
Officials with Lebanon's pro-government majority called an emergency of lawmakers in a mountain town in the country's Christian heartland, LBC-TV, a pro-government Christian station reported Friday. But it was unclear who would be able to attend since several lawmakers were holed up in their homes or offices.
"Even if Hezbollah's militia took everything we remain the constitutional authority," Cabinet Minister Ahmed Fatfat told Al-Arabiya TV from Saniora's compound.
The unrest has virtually shut down Lebanon's international airport and barricades closed major highways.
Hezbollah first blocked roads in Beirut on Wednesday to enforce a strike called by labor unions, but confrontations quickly spread and became more violent. Factions threw up roadblocks and checkpoints dividing Beirut into sectarian enclaves, and the chattering of automatic weapons and thumps of rocket-propelled grenades echoed across the city overnight.
The clashes are the latest turn in a test of wills between the Hezbollah-led opposition and the Saniora government.
The government, which is allied with the U.S. and Saudi Arabia, has only a slim majority in parliament. The two sides have been locked in a power struggle that has kept government at a standstill and the country without a president since November.
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