Four killed as Hezbollah, Sunni gunmen fight in Beirut
The roads out of the Lebanese capital are blocked and panicked resident are loading up on supplies as fear of civil war grows.
BEIRUT — Lebanon's long-simmering political crisis lurched deeper into violent civil conflict Thursday as bands of Shiite and Sunni gunmen battled in the streets for a second day and politicians took to the airwaves to denounce each other for pushing the country toward war.
Explosions and bursts of gunfire rattled central Beirut as groups allied with the Hezbollah-led opposition and the United States-backed government fired machine guns, assault rifles and grenade launchers at each other and into the air, apparently in shows of strength. The deep thuds of occasional mortar fire shook the ground as night fell.
Throughout the day, panicked civilians scurried for cover or loaded up on basic supplies, emptying supermarket shelves of frozen meats. Gunmen had blocked roads to the country's only international airport as well as the main highways to Damascus, the Syrian capital, and to southern Lebanon, in effect placing the capital under siege.
Lebanese news sources said at least four people were killed in fighting Thursday and a female bystander died of injuries sustained in the previous day's clashes. But information was scant as paramedics and security officials avoided entering areas of intense fighting that witnesses said resembled the level of the civil war that engulfed the country from 1975 to 1990.
By late night, government allies were calling for "dialogue" with the Shiite group Hezbollah, even as fighting continued and allegations mounted that its militiamen were raiding homes and offices of government supporters.
"We are trapped in our homes," one Sunni militiaman aligned with the pro-government Future movement said Thursday night, speaking by telephone from his central Beirut home. He spoke on condition of anonymity. "They shot at my building and at my car. We are trying to call the army to protect us and hoping we won't be taken from our homes but they will know sooner or later where we live."
The violence comes amid heightened regional tensions between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia, which strongly back the government, and Iran and Syria, which support Hezbollah and the opposition. In Lebanon, as well as the Palestinian territories and Iraq, the U.S. has begun increasing pressure on Iranian allies.
U.S. officials blamed Hezbollah for the unrest in Lebanon.
"Hezbollah needs to make a choice: Be a terrorist organization or be a political party, but quit trying to be both," U.S. national security council spokesman Gordon Johndroe said Thursday. "They need to stop their disruptive activities now."
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