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Opposition Seizes Most Of Beirut
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On Friday, several March 14 figures criticized what they considered to be the army's reluctance to stop Hezbollah.
"People need to feel that the army is there to protect them, and to protect their properties, and those last few days they haven't felt this way," said Dory Chamoun, president of the National Liberal Party.
The army had issued a statement saying the fighting had compromised its unity. Soldiers were intervening only to contain clashes and negotiate settlements between fighters.
Barriers, burned cars, concrete blocks and piles of dirt blocked streets around the capital, whose roads remained deserted.
In the neighborhood of Karakon Druze, a stronghold for the Sunni supporters of Future Movement, a largely Sunni party that is part of the government, opposition fighters smashed a sandwich shop, breaking its windows, and threw cans and food around.
Burned cars, shattered glass and upturned garbage containers were evidence of fierce fighting the night before. An old woman wearing a Druze veil stood on a balcony, and behind the curtain of a window in a nearby apartment a man held a baby. Both were watching fighters set fire to flags and posters of the pro-government March 14 coalition.
In Ras al-Nabaa, a neighborhood of Sunnis and Shiites that witnessed some of the worst fighting Thursday, the army seized control, repeatedly asking young boys from the opposition to leave the area.
"Tell Hezbollah congratulations, they have beaten their enemy, us, the people of Beirut," said Leila, a resident of the neighborhood, who refused to give her full name.
Beirut was calmer Friday than the day before, but tension increased in other parts of the country between Hezbollah's allies and supporters of Future Movement. Clashes broke out in cities with Sunni majorities, such as Tripoli and Sidon, and in the Druze village of Alley.
Early during the day, Future TV, a network of the Future Movement, stopped its transmission following threats conveyed through the army. One of the station's office buildings was attacked and burned while soldiers watched.
Diana Moukalled, Future TV's head of programming and a Shiite who has been at the network 16 years, said that preparations were made to broadcast from another location in one of Beirut's Christian suburbs, but the plan was halted because of threats to attack the main news center if broadcasting resumed.
"What's happening is not simple, it's too dangerous," she said. "I always felt we were targeted but never thought that the threat would be this direct."
