Clashes in northern and eastern Lebanon, outside Beirut

[David]

AP


BEIRUT, Lebanon - Heavy fighting broke out Sunday between supporters of Lebanon's Western-backed government and opposition followers in the central mountains overlooking the capital, security officials said.

The violence came after overnight clashes in northern Lebanon left one woman dead, bringing the toll across the country for the past five days to 38 — the worst sectarian violence since Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil war.

Sunday's fighting between pro-government supporters of Druse leader Walid Jumblatt and Shiite gunmen started in Aytat around 2 p.m., involving exchanges of rocket and machine gunfire. There also were sporadic gunbattles in the eastern Bekaa Valley.

The streets of Beirut, the focus of bloody sectarian clashes between Sunnis and Shiites for four days, were largely deserted on Sunday, a day off in Lebanon. However, many roads remained blocked by the ongoing civil disobedience campaign.

The street fighting is latest turn in a test of wills between the Hezbollah-led opposition and the government of Prime Minister Fuad Saniora. The U.S.-backed 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.

Last week the government confronted Hezbollah, saying it would remove the chief of airport security for alleged ties to the Shiite militant group and declared the group's private telephone network illegal and a threat to state security.

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said Thursday the decisions amounted to a declaration of war and he demanded they be revoked. His Shiite forces then overran large swaths of West Beirut.

The rout was a blow for Washington, which has long considered Hezbollah a terrorist group and condemns its ties to Syria and Iran. The Bush administration has been a strong supporter of Saniora's government and its army for the last three years.

The show of force added to jitters in the Middle East and the West over Iran's growing influence and its intentions in the region.

On Saturday, Lebanon's army offered Hezbollah a compromise, saying the airport security chief would retain his post and recommending to the government that it reverse its decision on the phone network.

A government official said Sunday the Cabinet would meet in the next two days "to discuss the possible exits for the crisis." It is widely believed the Cabinet then will revoke its decisions.

In the western Beirut neighborhood of Karakol Druse, which saw heavy fighting on Thursday, a man swept glass from outside his shop. A gaping hole from a rocket-propelled grenade and bullet holes marked the facade of a normally busy bakery, now closed.

Inside neighborhoods, there were no one was openly carrying weapons, save for small knots of gunmen from Hezbollah-ally Syrian Social Nationalist Party sitting outside the Economy Ministry in the western district of Hamra and in the seaside Rawshe area.

At midday, Saniora and some of his ministers and staff members held a moment of silence at the government building in honor of people killed in the violence.