Lebanon on brink of civil war as marches by Shiite groups lead to gun battles
SCHOOLS, banks and government offices across Lebanon stayed closed yesterday after hours of gun battles between heavily armed militias killed six people and terrorised the residents of Beirut.
The government called for a day of mourning following the armed clashes, in which gunmen used automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades on the streets of the capital, echoing the country’s darkest era of the 1975-90 civil war.
The gun battles raised the spectre of a return to sectarian violence in a country already struggling through one of the world’s worst economic crises of the past 150 years.
The violence broke out on Thursday at a protest organised by the two main Shiite parties – Hezbollah and the
Amal Movement – calling for the removal of the lead judge investigating last year’s massive explosion at
Beirut’s dock.
Many of the protesters were armed. It was not clear who fired the first shot but the confrontation quickly evolved into heavy exchanges of gunfire along a former civil war frontline separating predominantly Muslim and Christian areas of Beirut.
Gunfire was heard for hours and ambulances rushed to pick up casualties. Snipers shot from buildings, bullets penetrated apartment windows in the area, schools were evacuated and residents hid in shelters.
The two Shiite groups said their protesters came under fire from snipers deployed on rooftops, accusing the Christian right-wing Lebanese Forces militia of starting the shooting.
Among the dead – all Shiites – were two Hezbollah fighters.
Yesterday, residents in the Tayouneh area of Beirut, where most of the fighting played out, swept glass from the streets.
Soldiers guarded the road into the battered neighbourhood and barbed wire was erected at street entrances. Many cars were damaged.
Tayouneh has a huge roundabout that separates Christian and Muslim neighbourhoods. Buildings newly pockmarked with bullets sit next to those still scarred from the civil war.
Tensions over the port blast have contributed to Lebanon’s many troubles, including a currency collapse, hyperinflation, soaring poverty and an energy crisis leading to extended electricity blackouts.
The probe centres on hundreds of tons of ammonium nitrate improperly stored at a port warehouse that detonated on August 4 last year.
The blast killed at least 215 people, injured thousands and destroyed parts of nearby neighbourhoods. It was one of the largest non-nuclear explosions in history and further devastated a country already beset with political division and financial woes.
Judge Tarek Bitar has charged and issued an arrest warrant for Lebanon’s former finance minister, who is a senior member of the Amal Movement and a close ally of Hezbollah.
Judge Bitar has also charged three other former senior government officials with intentional killing and negligence that led to the blast.
Officials from both Shiite parties,
Amal and Hezbollah, including Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, had verbally attacked Judge Bitar for days, accusing him of politicising the investigation by charging and summoning some officials but not others.
None of Hezbollah’s officials have so far been charged in the 14-month investigation.
Judge Bitar is the second judge to lead the complex investigation. His predecessor was removed following legal challenges.