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Hezbollah and Sunni group clash in Beirut, killing 3
Lebanese soldiers cordoned off the area during the worst of the fighting on Tuesday, but the crackle of sniper fire and blasts from rocket-propelled grenades were audible for hours.
Gunmen stood on corners and peered down alleyways while families ran for cover during lulls in the fighting. Ambulances rushed to the scene; an elderly man was loaded into a stretcher clutching his neck, while another man was covered in blood and not moving.
It was the worst clash in Beirut since May 2008, when Hezbollah gunmen swept through Sunni neighborhoods after the pro-Western government tried to dismantle the group’s telecommunications network.
The 2008 fighting brought the country to the brink of a new civil war, but officials insisted Tuesday’s clash was not the same sectarian strife that has bedeviled Lebanon for decades.
The shootout erupted between the Shiite Hezbollah and the conservative Sunni Al-Ahbash group following a fight outside a mosque in the mixed residential area of Bourj Abu Haidar, security officials said.
A joint statement issued later by the two groups said the incident resulted from an “personal dispute and has no political or sectarian background.” It said the two sides agreed to immediately put an end to their differences and end all armed presence on the street. The officials said Mohammed Fawaz, a Hezbollah official from the area, and his aide, Munzer Hadi, were killed in the clashes along with Fawaz Omeirat of Al-Ahbash.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations. Salah, a 40-year-old who did not wish to give his last name, said he was inside the Bourj Abu Haidar mosque when he heard a commotion outside and people started screaming ”Calm down! Calm down!”
About 20 minutes later, he heard gunshots and bullets slamming into the mosque.
“They were shooting at the mosque. I think these people are crazy. They must have gone home to get their friends,” he told The Associated Press. Salah stayed inside with others before fleeing when the fighting stopped.
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