Hezbollah and Sunni group clash in Beirut with heavy weapons leaving 3 dead

Hezbollah, Sunni group clash in Beirut, killing 3

BEIRUT — Lebanese Shiite and Sunni groups traded machine gun fire and grenades in Beirut on Tuesday, killing three people and wounding several others just blocks from a busy downtown packed with tourists at this time of year.

Lebanese soldiers cordoned off the area and prevented journalists from entering, but the crackle of sniper fire and popping of rocket propelled grenades was audible for hours.

Gunmen stood on the corners and peering down alleyways in the neighborhood while families ran for cover. Ambulances rushed to the scene and an elderly man was loaded into a stretcher clutching his neck, while another was covered in blood and not moving.

The shootout erupted between the Shiite Hezbollah and the conservative Sunni Al-Ahbash group following a fight outside a mosque in the mixed residential area of Bourj Abu Haidar security officials said.

A joint statement issued later by the two groups said the incident resulted from an “personal dispute and has no political or sectarian background.”

It said the two sides agreed to immediately put an end to their differences and end all armed presence on the street.

The officials said Mohammed Fawaz, a Hezbollah official from the area, and his aide, Munzer Hadi, were killed in the clashes along with Fawaz Omeirat of Al-Ahbash.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.

Angry fighters later set fire to a mosque in the nearby neighborhood of Basta, according to an AP photographer.

Salah, a 40-year-old who did not wish to give his last name, said he was inside the Bourj Abu Haidar mosque when he heard a commotion outside and people screaming “calm down.”

Then 20 minutes later, he heard gunshots and bullets slamming into the mosque. “They were shooting at the mosque. I think these people are crazy. They must have gone home to get their friends,” he said.

Salah stayed inside with others before fleeing during a lull in the fighting.

The clashes took place as Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah addressed supporters, calling for increased military assistance for the Lebanese army from Iran and its Arab neighbors.

It was the worst clash since May 2008, when Hezbollah gunmen swept through Sunni neighborhoods of Beirut after the pro-Western government tried to dismantle the group’s telecommunications network.

The fighting at the time brought the country to the brink of a new civil war.

Lebanon has a history of deadly sectarian strife. Tensions have been running high in recent weeks over signs a U.N. tribunal could indict Hezbollah in the 2005 killing of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

Nasrallah has said he has information that the tribunal will implicate Hezbollah members, but he says the tribunal is an “Israeli project” and has no credibility.

Al-Ahbash, or the Association of Islamic Charitable Projects, is a deeply conservative Muslim group and a rival to many other Sunni groups in the country, including Hariri’s Future movement and the hardline Islamic Group.

The group’s name rose to prominence in the wake of Hariri’s assassination. Two senior officials from the group were detained for about four years on suspicion of involvement in the killing, but were later released.

Associated Press writer Zeina Karam contributed to this report.