Hezbollah imposes control on Beirut
Middle East Desk Report

BEIRUT—The Iranian-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah took control of the Muslim half of Beirut on Friday, tightening its grip on the city in a major blow to the U.S.-backed government.
Security so5rces said at least 11 people had been killed and 30 wounded in three days of battles between pro-government gunmen and fighters loyal to Hezbollah, a Shi’ite political movement with a powerful guerrilla army.
The fighting, the worst internal strife since the 1975-90 civil war, was triggered this week after the government took decisions targeting Hezbollah’s military communications network. The group said the government had declared war.
In scenes reminiscent of the darkest days of the civil war, young men armed with assault rifles roamed the streets amid smashed cars and smoldering buildings. The sound of exploding grenades and automatic gunfire echoed throughout the night across a city still rebuilding from the civil war. By mid-morning the fighting had died down and Hezbollah and allied fighters were in control as loyalists put down their weapons.
The European Union, Germany and France urged calm and a peaceful resolution. Syria said the issue was an internal Lebanese affair while Iran blamed “the adventurist interferences” of the United States and Israel for the violence.
Italy said it was preparing an evacuation plan for its nationals in Lebanon while Egypt and Saudi Arabia, strong backers of the governing coalition, called on Arab foreign ministers to meet urgently to discuss the Lebanese crisis. France is offering to help warring factions in Lebanon meet for talks in the hope of preventing a grave situation becoming worse, Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said on Friday.
“We invite everyone to come to the table to reach an accord. We are ready to facilitate their meeting and take all necessary measures,” he said in a statement. The dead included a woman and her 30-year-old son, who were killed when trying to flee Ras al-Nabae — a mixed Sunni-Shi’ite Beirut district and scene of some of the heaviest clashes.
“They were trying to flee to the mountains. Instead ... they reached the hospital, dead,” said a relative of the victims, who declined to give her name because of security fears.
“It was terrifying during the night. We couldn’t even move about in the house,” said another woman — a resident of Ras al-Nabae who had fled the area at first light with her children. “We spent the night in the corridor.” A pro-government leader called for dialogue.
“The party, regardless of its military strength, cannot annul the other,” Walid Jumblatt, leader of the Druze minority, told the pro-government LBC television station from his home in Beirut. “Dialogue alone brings results. Running away from dialogue is not useful.”
Hezbollah gunmen took control of media outlets owned by governing coalition leader Saad al-Hariri, Lebanon’s strongest Sunni politician. Hariri’s television and radio stations went off the air. Hezbollah, a Shi’ite group also backed by Syria, had been steadily seizing offices of pro-government factions in the predominantly Muslim western half of the city.
Backed by the Shi’ite Amal group, Hezbollah fighters have been handing control of the offices to the army — which is trying to play a neutral role in the crisis. A security source said Hezbollah and its allies were in control of the mainly Muslim half of Beirut after pro-government gunmen laid down their weapons in their last bastio??