Rival Groups Clash in Beirut Streets

Four Killed in Battles Sparked by Argument at University; Army Imposes Curfew

Photos
Strike Turns Violent in Beirut
Government and opposition supporters clashed at a Beirut university campus Thursday, battering each other with sticks, stones and even furniture as new violence erupts from Lebanon's political crisis.

BEIRUT, Jan. 25 -- The Lebanese army imposed a curfew on the capital Thursday after hundreds of government supporters and foes wielded rocks, molotov cocktails and sometimes guns in street battles that dragged on past nightfall. Four people were killed and 150 wounded, officials said, many of them soldiers who at times stood helplessly between the two sides.

The clashes, which began in a university cafeteria and spread to the surrounding neighborhood of Tariq Jedideh, offered a bitter contrast to the optimism of an international conference in Paris, where more than $7.6 billion was pledged to help Lebanon's economy recover from last summer's war between Israel and the Shiite Muslim movement Hezbollah.

As the grants and loans were announced in Paris, bursts of gunfire echoed along the airport road here and columns of black smoke rose from burning cars. The clashes were some of the worst since Lebanon's 15-year civil war ended in 1990 and followed violence Tuesday that left three people dead.

Hundreds of Hezbollah followers, in red and blue helmets, poured into Tariq Jedideh, a Sunni neighborhood, many of them carrying sticks and chains. At one point, their opponents burned a Hezbollah banner, an act that spoke to the jarring rise in tension between Sunni Muslims, largely aligned with the government, and Hezbollah supporters since the crisis began two months ago.

The army and security officers deployed in force after the clashes erupted, but often fired into the air or simply gave way. For hours, crowds surged at each other, then retreated, usually separated by soldiers crouched behind armored personnel carriers. More clashes ensued elsewhere, as Sunni crowds firebombed the headquarters of a party allied with Hezbollah and Shiite youths rampaged along a downtown street lined with bank headquarters.

The images reverberated across Beirut, uneasy since Dec. 1, when Hezbollah and its allies began their campaign to topple the government of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora with a mass protest in the downtown area. The overburdened cellphone network was paralyzed. In the streets, there were grim reminders of the civil war: Swaggering young men asked residents whether they were Sunni or Shiite; cars were attacked because of their owner's sect; and both sides questioned whether the army could protect them.

"It's going to get worse. Look at all this," said Salah al-Sheikh, a 40-year-old Sunni resident, waving his hand toward a block of incinerated or smashed vehicles, the street littered with rocks, sticks and shattered glass. "A few days ago, they were in the same schools and the same universities. Look what's happening now. Why? That's all I want to ask. Why?"

Behind him, another Sunni resident shouted, "Give us weapons! Give us weapons!"

Across the street, Shiite crowds set fire to cars and released the emergency brakes of buses, letting them slam into concrete walls. Traffic signals were broken; street signs and an iron gate were torn down.

"Let them blow off steam," said an older, bearded man, dressed in the traditional black of Hezbollah's security force.

The fighting was an episode, writ small, of an increasingly precarious Middle East, riven by growing sectarian tension, simmering civil conflict here and in the Palestinian territories, and a deepening war in Iraq that followed the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. Leaders across the political divide called on their supporters to exercise restraint. Lebanese officials said the army insisted that all sides agree to a curfew before it declared its start at 8:30 p.m.

"I call on everyone to return to the voice of reason," Siniora said from Paris, where he attended the aid conference.