Lebanon:GUNMEN EXCHANGED fire in flashpoint areas of Beirut yesterday after an escalation in tension between the Lebanese government and Hizbullah exploded on to the streets.
Young supporters of the Shia Amal and Hizbullah opposition movements blocked roads with burning tyres, mounds of earth, concrete barriers and wheelie-bins, closing the capital's main arteries and routes to the airport and port.
Airport traffic was frozen for six hours. "Contacts are ongoing between the parties to try to open the road and keep the airport out of the conflict," a security source said.
Fears of sectarian and political violence soared when the opposition forces, also including the Christian Free Patriotic Movement, threw their weight behind a strike called by the labour union federation to demand higher wages and protest at living costs.
The opposition has viewed Prime Minister Fouad al-Seniora's government as illegitimate since six of its ministers quit in November 2006, and renewed calls for it to step down yesterday.
In turn, the government rejects opposition demands for a greater share in power. Lebanon has had no president for five months as a result of the tug-of-war.
A pall of black, acrid smoke from the tyres hovered above a city of barricades, soldiers, shuttered shops and deserted roads. Burning cars blocked a roundabout in the mainly Shia southern suburbs.
In the flashpoint areas of Ras el-Nabeh, Noueiry and Corniche el-Mazraa, which are a mix of Sunni and Shia Muslims and therefore of supporters of parliamentary majority leader Saad al-Hariri and the opposition's Hizbullah and Amal respectively, gangs of youths exchanged fire and occasional grenades, and threw stones at each other. Sporadic shooting continued as night fell. The security source said between 12 and 15 people were injured, but none were thought to be grave.
"Seniora has to go", said a 20-year-old manning a barricade and wearing a surgical mask. "He hasn't listened to one of our demands and just plays the Sunni-Shia strife card." The day recalled a general strike in January 2007 that descended into street-fighting that killed three people.
All are awaiting a speech by Hizbullah secretary-general Hassan Nasrallah today, in which he is expected to respond to the pro-western government's escalation against the guerrilla and political group.
Just before dawn yesterday, after a mammoth cabinet session, the government declared a private telephone network run by Hizbullah illegal, and "an attack on the sovereignty of the state".
It also removed the head of airport security, Wafik Shoucair, who had Hizbullah's confidence, after accusing the group of installing cameras to spy on the anti-Syrian ruling movement's comings and goings by private jet.
Hizbullah said the telephone network was part of its military communications system and tampering with it was tantamount to collaboration with its foe, Israel.
An opposition source said roads would remain closed until the government rescinded its decisions, an action analysts deemed unlikely.