Beirut - The usually-bustling west Beirut streets were empty Friday night, save for the Hezbollah-led opposition who roamed the center of the city now under their control.
Lebanese men walk in a blocked street in Beirut, Lebanon on 09 May 2008. Lebanon's Iranian-backed Hezbollah took control of large areas of Beirut on Friday, tightening its grip on the city in a major blow to the U.S.-backed government after three days of intense fighting. EPA/WISSAM HECHMEH
The were well armed with rifles.
The Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah and its ally, the Amal movement, seized control of the key western part of Beirut earlier on Friday, the third day of armed clashes with pro-government opponents.
They laid siege to the areas around Lebanese government buildings, including the governmental palace of Premier Fouad Seniora and the homes of anti-Syria majority leaders Walid and Saad Hariri.
Sporadic heavy machinegun fire could be heard across the capital through the afternoon, and the rattle of gunfire and the thump of exploding rocket-propelled grenades rang out across mainly Muslim West Beirut as Sunni government loyalists fought street battles with Shiite gunmen.
By nightfall, residents of Beirut stayed inside for the third consecutive day, praying that the 'nightmare will end soon,' as one person put it. Since fighting raged since Thursday, at least 13 people were killed and hospitals were making radio appeals for blood donations amid reports of dozens of wounded.
'We are now controlling most of Beirut, we stayed away from the residence of the majority leaders, because we had orders from our command not to approach them,' a Hezbollah militant told Deutsche Presse Agentur, dpa shortly before midnight.
Hezbollah and Amal fighters led reporters on a nighttime tour, where only opposition gunmen moved in the dark streets.
One fighter pointed to a nest of empty mattresses scattered with photos of the majority legislative leader Saad Hariri.
'Look, this where they were hiding,' he said, referring to the opposition militants.
The building, riddled with bullets, was just a stone's throw away from Hariri's house. The area around the leader's home looks like a barracks, with army tanks and soldiers blocking the main road leading to his gate.
A nearby resident in the upscale neighbourhood of Kroteim around Hariri's palace described the day as 'horrible.'
Opposition followers 'were firing into our buildings and we received many stray bullets inside our bedrooms and living rooms,' said Rola ali Ahemd, a Shiite Muslim.
'We are Lebanese, for God's sake. We are not their enemies,' she said.
The incidents were the worst in Lebanon since the end of the 1975-1990 civil war.
'What we are witnessing today on the streets of Beirut is an Iranian war against the free people of Lebanon,' said majority MP and minister of telecommunication Marwan Hamadeh.
Some analysts said Hezbollah would not try to directly install itself as the new government - a step that could easily ignite a new civil war - but instead was likely to ask the military to assume control.
Lebanon's unrest triggered urgent international appeals for calm, amid fears that civil war could spread to the region.
Arab foreign ministers were set to meet on the crisis on Sunday amid regional Sunni Muslim fears about Shiite Iran's influence in Lebanon.
Lebanon's feud is widely seen as an extension of the confrontation pitting the United States and its Arab allies and Israel against Syria and Iran, which back Hezbollah - regarded as a terrorist group by the West.
As the fighting eased at night, the army and police moved across areas now in the hands of Iranian- and Syrian-backed opposition forces which have been locked in an 18-month power struggle with the ruling coalition.
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 immediate spark that lit the current clashes came after the western-backed government decided on Tuesday to launch a probe against Hezbollah for establishing a communication network that was monitoring the Beirut airport - regarded as an imminent threat to airport security.
Hezbollah chief Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah made a firey speech against the western-backed government on Thursday which stirred up the violent takeover by his suipporters.
The clashes engulfed various sectors of Lebanon, north, south, east as well as the capital.
© Deutsche Presse-Agentur
the iranians/syrians are behind this as usualMay 10th, 2008 - 15:20:52
Well done Iran... your attack dogs in Hezbollah are going to have another civil war yet.
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