Shiite Militias Seize Beirut Neighborhoods

BEIRUT, Lebanon-Heavily armed Hezbollah fighters seized control of large parts of western Beirut on Friday, patrolling the deserted streets in a raw show of force that underscored the Shiite militia’s refusal to back down in its escalating confrontation with the American-backed government. Hezbollah allies also forced a government-allied satellite TV station off the air and burned the offices of its newspaper affiliate, as Sunni fighters loyal to the government largely melted away, outnumbered and outgunned, during a third day of armed clashes here.Those humiliating blows made clearer than ever the power of Hezbollah and its allies, who are allied with Iran and Syria, over the government majority in the political stalemate that has crippled Lebanon for 17 months.By Friday afternoon, a long column of Hezbollah fighters and paramilitaries was riding joyfully through west Beirut in trucks, cars, and scooters, shouting and firing their weapons into the air in a victory celebration.The government majority issued an urgent appeal for help from other nations Friday evening, calling Hezbollah’s actions an “armed coup” on Lebanon and its democratic system using “weapons sent by Tehran.”The gun battles of the past three days have pitted Sunni Muslims against Shiites, with Lebanon’s divided Christians -including Michel Aoun, the former general who is allied with Hezbollah-sitting out the conflict. The clashes appear to be exacerbating sectarian tensions between Muslims here, in an ominous echo of the civil conflict in Iraq.Lebanon’s army-the one institution viewed as neutral in Lebanon’s bitter political struggle-has stood by during the clashes, unwilling to take sides. Hezbollah and its allies handed control of some government offices to the army on Friday after commandeering them, hoping to avoid being seen as a conquering force.Three days of street battles here have left at least 11 people dead and 20 wounded, after the government majority provoked a confrontation by challenging Hezbollah’s telecommunications network on Tuesday.It was unclear what the developments would mean for Lebanon’s political future. For now, they seemed only to lead to stalemate and a deepening of Lebanon’s troubles. For 17 months, Lebanon has had a political crisis between the Hezbollah-led opposition supported by Iran and Syria and the government of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, who is backed by the West and Saudi Arabia. The standoff has left the country without a president since November.The clashes began Wednesday, a day after the government decided to take steps against Hezbollah’s telephone network. Lebanese officials consider the network a violation of the country’s sovereignty. The fighting escalated Thursday, after Hezbollah’s leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, said the government’s decision was “a declaration of war.”But he said Hezbollah would back down if the Sunni forces left the streets of Beirut and the government reversed its decision on the telephone network.After Mr. Nasrallah’s speech, Saad Hariri, the leader of the largest bloc in Parliament, proposed a deal to end the fighting and called the government’s decision a misunderstanding.Mr. Hariri said any move on the network should be left up to the army command, and he urged the immediate election of the army commander, Gen. Michel Suleiman, as president and the convening of a national dialogue among the rival factions.Later on Thursday night, Al Manar television, which is run by Hezbollah, said the group had rejected Mr. Hariri’s proposal. The station cited a pro-Hezbollah official, who said the group and its allies would reject any ideas for ending the conflict that were not proposed by Mr. Nasrallah.Still, on Friday, the Shiite militias began to open up roads that had been blocked since a general strike began on Tuesday, including allowing cars through to the airport, and seemed to be waiting for the government to reverse its decision on the telephone network.In Israel, officials said they were tracking the events across the northern border closely but were keeping their response muted, clearly anxious not to throw any fuel on the fire.The government refrained from making any public statements on Friday, though a senior official described the situation across the border as “very serious.” President Shimon Peres, an elder statesman now in a largely ceremonial position, told reporters that what was happening in Lebanon was a “tragedy,” but that it had “nothing to do with Israel.”Israel was embroiled in its own month-long war with Hezbollah in the summer of 2006 after the Shiite militia captured two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid. But despite a concerted bombing campaign, Israel was unable to stop Hezbollah’s rockets that continued to rain down on northern Israel until the last day of the war, and has still not secured the return of the soldiers.Ehud Olmert, the prime minister, has argued that the war was not a failure, insisting that it left Hezbollah seriously weakened, but recent Israeli security assessments estimate that the Shiite organization now has double the number of rockets it had before the war, and that they have grown in range.“There is no alarm, but there are worries,” said Aharon Zeevi Farkash, a former head of Israeli military intelligence, in a telephone interview on Friday. “If in the end Nasrallah wins, of course it will have an effect on Israel in the longer term,” he said. “We will have a Shiite religious state on our northern border. It will be like having an immediate border with Iran.”But if Mr. Nasrallah fails, Mr. Farkash added, Hezbollah could turn its arrows against Israel as a distraction. “We have to be very sensitive and let it remain an internal Lebanese issue,” he said.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/10/world/middleeast/10lebanon.html?_r=1&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&oref=slogin

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