LEBANON:HIZBULLAH YESTERDAY took control of a strategic mountain-top village in Druze heartlands, south-east of the capital, after fierce fighting with government allies, consolidating strategic gains which analysts said would be used in confrontations with Israel.
"Hizbullah will very soon spread all over. They will not leave any strategic part of the country in the hands of their so-called enemies," said Ahmad Moussali, a professor at the American University of Beirut and an expert on Islamist groups.
Hizbullah's leader, Hassan Nasrallah, last week branded the western-backed, Sunni-led government as "Israelis dressed in suits speaking Arabic" after ministers ordered a crackdown on his group's secure telecoms system. In response, Shia Hizbullah fighters and their allies overran Sunni strongholds in west Beirut, then withdrew following a government climbdown.
Despite calls for a ceasefire, Hizbullah fighters defeated militants loyal to Druze leader Waleed Jumblatt in clashes which began on Sunday night, gaining control of Niha, a village in the southern Chouf mountains, 40km (25 miles) south-east of Beirut.
Analysts said the village provided the Iranian-backed group, also an ally of Damascus, with a crucial link between its stronghold in the eastern Bekaa Valley and the coastal highway which leads to Hizbullah's bases in Beirut's southern suburbs.
"Hizbullah have shown they are not interested in unseating Jumblatt but rather opening a possible supply route between Bekaa and the southern suburbs," said Ousama Safa, director of Beirut's Lebanese Centre for Policy Studies. "They can now use the area as a second front, behind the Bekaa."
On Sunday, Hizbullah fighters took over key positions in Aley, a Druze town north of the Chouf, which abuts the main Beirut-Damascus highway, giving them control of another key artery. Both Druze areas have since been turned over to the army, which has a long-standing agreement on military co-operation with Hizbullah over Israel.
Beirut's international airport remained largely closed for a sixth day yesterday as Hizbullah supporters continued to block its main supply road, while hundreds of foreigners, fearing a descent into civil war, fled via land routes to Syria.
A ceasefire in the northern port city of Tripoli broke down yesterday as Sunni supporters of parliamentary leader Saad Hariri exchanged machine-gun and grenade fire with Alawite militiamen allied to Hizbullah.
The fighting brought the death toll in six days of conflict to 81, with 250 wounded.
Arab foreign ministers said that they would send mediators, headed by Qatar, to arrive in Beirut tomorrow.
In a statement last night Lebanon's army said that it would use force from today to stop the fighting. "Army units will halt violations . . . in accordance with the law, even if that leads to the use of force," the statement said.
Parliament has postponed a vote on a new Lebanese president for the 19th time, delaying the session to June 10th.
Hizbullah's success has dealt a blow to the ruling Sunni-led coalition and its main patron, the United States, which has cast the country as a fragile democracy endangered by the ambitions of Hizbullah and its Iranian and Syrian backers.
"The president, you can bet, is going to be talking about this while he's on his trip," a White House spokeswoman said, referring to US president George Bush's visit this week to the Middle East. Mr Bush is due to meet Lebanese prime minister Fouad Siniora in Egypt on Sunday.
The US destroyer Cole passed through the Suez Canal to the eastern Mediterranean on Sunday. The ship deployed off Lebanon in February as a show of support to Mr Siniora's government.
US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice said the real goal must be "to get a president elected in Lebanon", adding: "There is, of course, a consensus candidate. All of those who are interfering with his election should step aside and let it take place".
- (Guardian Service; additional reporting, Reuters)