Street fighting in Beirut

AZG Armenian Daily #089, 10/05/2008

Middle East

STREET FIGHTING IN BEIRUT

Yesterday a quarrel occurred between the Government of
Lebanon and the "Hzbollah" organization. The quarrel
was caused by the Government’s decision to disable the
video monitoring cameras in the Beirut Airport, which
were controlled by "Hzbollah". For over three days the
situation was hot in Lebanon and yesterday street
fighting started in Beirut. BBC reports that 11 people
were killed and over 20 were wounded.

The "Hzbollah" militants succeeded to take control
over the greater part of Beirut, the capital of
Lebanon, informs InterFax relying upon information
supplied by Lebanese special services.

Hasan Nasrallah, head of the Shiite "Hzbollah"
organization, added fuel to the fire saying that the
pro-American Government’s decision to close the
organization’s telecommunication system was something
equal to declaring war. Nasrallah is sure that the
Government’s decision is only in the interests of the
USA and Israel.

BBC also informs that the Governmental forces are
supported by Sunnite and Drouz militant formations.

Children and women suffered from the armed clashes.
One women with her son died from an explosion, and
another women was killed with a random bullet.

The civil life in Beirut is completely messed up.
There are barricades in the streets and the Shiite
part of the city is divided from the Sunnite part with
military posts.

This is the hardest political crisis in Lebanon since
the times of the civil war. The chair of the President
of Lebanon has been vacant for 5 months due to inner
political struggle.