International

Fighting rages in Mount Lebanon

BEIRUT: Heavy fighting broke out between pro- and anti-government supporters in Lebanon’s central mountains overlooking the capital on Sunday sending echoes of gunfire and explosions rolling across Beirut, said security officials.

The clashes between pro-government supporters of Druse leader Walid Jumblatt and Shia gunmen and their allies started in the mountain town of Aytat around 2 p.m. involving exchanges of rockets and machine gun fire, said the officials. It later spread to the nearby towns of Kayfoun, Qamatiyeh, Bchamoun and Chouweifat, they added.

There were no initial reports of casualties. Mr. Jumblatt called for a halt to the fighting and for the army to take contorl of the mountains. The clashes came a day after Hezbollah accused Mr. Jumblatt’s followers of killing two of their supporters.

Beirut, for four days the focus of bloody sectarian clashes between Sunnis and Shias, was quiet. However, many of its roads remained blocked by the civil disobedience campaign of the opposition.

Clashes took place overnight in the north of the country, particularly in Tripoli, where pro-government supporters in the Tebaneh neighbourhood exchanged rocket propelled grenades and heavy machine gun fire with opposition followers, the officials said. The clashes were over by morning when the Lebanese army deployed on the streets between the warring factions.

The fighting is latest turn in a test of wills between the Hezbollah-led opposition and the government of Prime Minister Fuad Siniora. The government has only a slim majority in Parliament, and the two sides have been locked in a 17-month power struggle. The deadlock has prevented Parliament from electing a President, leaving the country without a head of state since November. — AP

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