By Megan K. Stack, Times Staff Writer|November 25, 2006
BEIRUT — The Sunnis were lucky: The homemade bomb that exploded outside their little filling station in the early hours Friday didn't ignite the tanks of gasoline. Shrapnel smashed through the glass windows and metal shutters, but the lone employee was in the bathroom and nobody was hurt.
Shiite gangs roamed the surrounding streets that night, attacking any Sunni symbols they could find, including a mosque. All over Lebanon, Shiites were spoiling for revenge after seeing television footage of the funeral of assassinated Christian Cabinet minister Pierre Gemayel.
Mourners, including some Sunnis, had cursed Shiites and their leaders at the funeral. Afterward, Shiites turned their rage on the nearest Sunnis they could find. Sunnis fought back. A cycle of violence, with uncomfortable echoes of Lebanon's past, was getting underway.
"The country is headed for war," said Abbas Ismail, 50, a Sunni who works in the bombed gas station. He stood on a small concrete ledge as a sinking sun spilled long shadows over Beirut's southern suburbs. "People think we are going to face a civil war."
Brawls and vandalism with sectarian overtones have erupted in the Lebanese capital in recent days, especially where rival sects or political parties live side by side. Gangs roamed the streets, looking for a place to vent their rage.
The incidents are minor: insults shouted, rocks thrown at mosques, posters of sectarian leaders shredded. But they reveal a precarious mood. This is just the sort of low-level violence that has sparked clashes and fueled Lebanon's internal religious fighting for generations.
A political rift has grown steadily more serious. On one side is a government clinging precariously to existence; on the other, a Hezbollah-led opposition determined to grab a greater share of power.
With Hezbollah, a powerful Shiite party, and its allies threatening to stage massive protests to topple the government, there is mounting concern that street violence could give way to wider reprisals.
"Maybe it will start like this. It's very obvious -- in 1975 it started like this," said Romel Sherri, a 34-year-old engineer, referring to the start of Lebanon's 15-year civil war. Like most people in Lebanon, Sherri was confident that his own group, Hezbollah, would behave itself, and skeptical about the intentions of its rivals.
