News, October 2007
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Editorial Note: The following news reports are summaries from original sources. They may also include corrections of Arabic names and political terminology. Comments are in parentheses. |
Lebanese army revokes government moves against
Hizbollah, 29 Killed in 4 Days of Fighting
Daily Star, Saturday, May 10, 2008
BEIRUT, May 10, 2008 -
The Lebanese army said on Saturday that it was revoking measures taken by the government against the Hezbollah movement and called for all armed militants to withdraw from the streets.
It said that the head of airport security, who had been reassigned from his job, would remain in his post and that the army would look into a communications network set up by the group.\
The military said it had taken these decisions in the light of a government wish that it rule on these matters. The army's statement came shortly after Prime Minister Fouad Siniora made a televised address to the nation.
Tuesday's government decision to reassign the head of airport security and launch a judicial probe into the communications network sparked bloody clashes between supporters of the Hezbollah-led opposition and the Western-backed ruling bloc.
Siniora urges army to restore order
By Agence France Presse (AFP) Saturday, May 10, 2008
by Jocelyne Zablit
BEIRUT, May 10, 2008 (AFP) -
Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora urged the army to restore order on Saturday after Hezbollah took over west Beirut and vowed his government would hold firm in its face-off with the opposition.
"I have called on the army to live up to its national responsibilities without hesitation or delay and this has not happened until now," Siniora said in a televised address to the nation that marked his first reaction to the sectarian clashes that have left 29 people dead in four days.
"The dream of democracy ... has been dealt a poisonous sting," Siniora said. "Your country will not succumb to those behind this coup and the Lebanese people will not allow the return of hegemony.
"Democracy has taken a stab to the heart ... but the state will not fall to those behind this coup." The premier called on the army to clear militants from the streets immediately, as well as the Hezbollah-led protestors who have been holding a sit-in outside his government's headquarters since December 2006.
"I call on the army to impose security on everyone in all areas and to clear armed elements from the streets immediately," he said.
He called on all Lebanese to stand for a minute's silence on Sunday to commemorate those killed in the sectarian clashes of the past four days.
Siniora said the weapons of Hezbollah could no longer be considered legitimate as they had been turned on Lebanese.
"We believed them when they said they would not turn their weapons internally," he said.
Six killed during Beirut funeral: hospital
By Agence France Presse (AFP) Saturday, May 10, 2008
BEIRUT, May 10, 2008 (AFP) -
Gunmen killed six people during the funeral procession on Saturday of a Sunni civilian killed in clashes that have rocked the Lebanese capital over the past four days, a hospital official told AFP.
"We have six dead and 20 injured, six of them in critical condition," the official at Makassed hospital said.
A Lebanese army spokesman said that the owner of a scrap metal shop near where the procession was taking place had been arrested in connection with the shooting.
The spokesman said the suspect had been handed over to military police but declined to give futher details.
The procession was for Mohamed Shamaa, 24, who was killed in the Corniche al-Mazraa area on Thursday night.
Hundreds of residents of Tareek al-Jadidah, where the funeral procession was taking place, gathered at the cemetery as the army took up position nearby with gunmen still in the area, an AFP correspondent witnessed.
Lebanon has been the scene of fierce clashes between mainly supporters of the government and supporters of the opposition with much of west Beirut falling under opposition control.-AFP
Fourteen killed in north Lebanon clashes
By Agence France Presse (AFP) Saturday, May 10, 2008
TRIPOLI, Lebanon, May 10, 2008 (AFP) - Fourteen people were killed in fierce clashes in north Lebanon on Saturday between supporters of the Western-backed government and of the opposition, a security official told AFP.
"The headquarters of the Syrian Social National Party (SSNP) in Halba fell to the Future Movement forces," the official said, adding that seven people were found dead inside.
The toll from the fighting in the north has now risen to 14 from seven reported dead earlier in the day, the official said.
He told AFP earlier that civilians were among the casualties.
The fighting erupted in the town Halba, in the Akkar region, pitting a party allied with the Hezbollah-led opposition against members of the ruling bloc, the official added.
The main northern city of Tripoli was also the scene of violence between supporters of the government and the opposition.
"The offices of the Syrian Social Nationalist Party as well as Hezbollah's offices in the area have been torched and damaged by supporters of the Future Movement," the official said adding that the Lebanese flag and pictures of slain premier Rafiq Hariri were hung outside.
The former billionaire prime minister was assassinated in 2005 in a bombing widely blamed on Syria although Damascus has denied any involvement.
The Tripoli office of opposition leader Michel Aoun was handed over to the army, the official added.
In another incident, seven Syrian labourers from Aleppo and their driver from south Lebanon were wounded by gunmen at a checkpoint they had set up on the Minya highway, the security official said.
A total of 29 people have been killed in four days of clashes between mainly Sunni supporters of the government and Shiite supporters of the opposition with much of west Beirut falling under opposition control and the offices of the Sunni Future Movement being turned over to the army in many areas.-AFP
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