CRAWFORD, Texas (AFP) — The United States on Thursday demanded that Lebanon's Hezbollah Shiite militant group "stop their disruptive activities" as fierce gunbattles raged in Beirut.
"Hezbollah needs to make a choice: Be a terrorist organization or be a political party, but quit trying to be both. They need to stop their disruptive activities now," said US national security council spokesman Gordon Johndroe.
Separately, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack called the outbreak of violence between Hezbollah militants and Lebanese government troops a "source of concern" for Washington.
Fierce gunfights erupted in Beirut on Thursday after Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah charged that a Lebanese government crackdown on his group was tantamount to a "declaration of war," raising fears of a full-blown sectarian conflict.
Supporters of the Western-backed government and the Hezbollah-led opposition engaged in shootouts in several mixed Sunni and Shiite Muslim districts of the capital, with militants using rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns, according to a security official.
The violence erupted ahead of US President George W. Bush's planned with Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora next week when they meet at Egypt's Red Sea resort of Sharm el Sheikh.
Bush plans to discuss Lebanon's simmering political crisis with Siniora, according to Johndroe.
Bush leaves for the Middle East on Tuesday, bound first for Israel as it celebrates the 60th anniversary of its founding as a modern state, then Saudi Arabia to celebrate 75 years of US relations with the kingdom, and on to Egypt.
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