Fighting in north Lebanon as opposition ends Beirut takeover
TRIPOLI, Lebanon (AFP) — Fierce battles raged in northern Lebanon between rival clans on Sunday leaving at least one person dead even as the Hezbollah-led opposition handed control of the capital Beirut to the army.
The Arab League was also set to hold an emergency meeting in Egypt on the crisis amid regional Sunni Muslim fears about Shiite Iran's influence in divided Lebanon.
A security official said the fighting in the country's second city of Tripoli was between Sunni supporters of the Western-backed government and members of an Alawite sect loyal to Hezbollah, which is backed by both Syria and Iran.
He added that thousands of people were fleeing the clashes and that at least two people had been wounded.
The firefights which erupted overnight were concentrated in the densely populated Bab al-Tebbaneh, Kobbeh and Jabal Mohsen neighbourhoods on the northern edge of the coastal city.
"About 7,000 people have fled from Bab al-Tebbaneh, which marks the frontlines, because of the battles," he said.
Residents of Tripoli reported heavy machine-gun fire and the thump of exploding rocket-propelled grenades, an AFP correspondent said.
Bab al-Tebbaneh and Kobbeh are Sunni districts while Jabal Mohsen is mainly Alawite.
Alawites are a secretive offshoot of Shiite Islam who revere Ali, the cousin and son-in-law of the Prophet Mohammed. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, whose government has been accused of backing Hezbollah, is an Alawite.
The battle in the north came despite Saturday's return to an uneasy calm in the capital Beirut, the scene of four days of fierce sectarian fighting between mainly Sunni supporters of the ruling bloc and Shiite opposition militias.
No armed elements could be seen on the streets of the capital early on Sunday, but some barricades put up by militants remained and the airport road was shut for the fifth straight day.
The Shiite opposition announced on Saturday it was ending its takeover of large swathes of west Beirut after the army revoked government moves against Hezbollah that sparked days of deadly fighting.
"The opposition welcomes the army's decision and will proceed with the withdrawal of all its armed elements so that control of the capital is handed over to the military," an opposition statement said.
The announcement came shortly after the army said it was overturning a government decision to reassign the head of Beirut airport security and to probe a Hezbollah communications network -- measures that sparked the unrest.
But lawmaker Ali Hassan Khalil of Hezbollah's Shiite ally Amal said the opposition would still keep up its campaign of civil disobedience against the government.
Amal militants were among the first to pull back from the streets of west Beirut on Saturday after four days of bitter clashes left at least 34 people dead nationwide and brought the country dangerously close to a new civil war.
The White House welcomed the lessening of violence in Beirut but warned that "our concerns regarding Hezbollah are unchanged."
"They continue to be a destabilising force there with the backing of their supporters, Iran and Syria," US National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe said.
The takeover of west Beirut was a dramatic display of Hezbollah's military might and capacity to impose its will.
In a television address to the nation embattled Prime Minister Fuad Siniora accused the group, which waged a 34-day war with Israel in the summer of 2006, of staging an armed coup and urged the army to step in and restore order.
He said Hezbollah's weapons could no longer be considered to be legitimately held because they had been turned against the Lebanese themselves.
Siniora urged all Lebanese to stand for a minute of silence at noon (0900 GMT) on Sunday in remembrance of victims of the unrest and to express their rejection of the violence.
Meanwhile foreigners continued to leave Lebanon by road to Syria on Sunday, although the eastern border crossing of Masnaa was still blocked by pro-government supporters.
An official at Beirut's Rafiq Hariri International Airport, which has been virtually shut down by the unrest, said no incoming or outgoing flights were scheduled for Sunday.
Lebanon's long-running political standoff, which first erupted in November 2006 when six pro-Syrian ministers quit the cabinet, has left it without a president since November, when Damascus protege Emile Lahoud stepped down.
The crisis in Lebanon is widely seen as an extension of the confrontation pitting the United States and its Arab allies against Syria and Iran.
