Beirut Ramping Up
Irina Prentice writes from Beirut:
Beirut Ramping Up
Yesterday afternoon the political fight came to a head, turning to armed conflict throughout key neighborhoods in Beirut. Loud explosions, automatic machine gun fire, rocket propelled grenade, and pistol shots resounded throughout the night.
The fight moved from a vicinity of half a kilometer from . . . Sodeco around 5pm, outwards throughout the city. In the middle of the night, the sound was drowned out by a thunder storm which unexpectedly set in as quickly as the fight which broke out.
Although, the sky was clear in the day, and the temperature cool, the unusual storm caught many of the inhabitants off guard. The loud thunder drowned out the explosions, the downpour took over and things seem to quiet down until 5 this morning.
"Things were quiet in the neighborhood until about 5 and then it went off", explains an AUB student living in the neighborhood of Hamra.
A foreign journalist living in Hamra explained that clashes have been ongoing since this morning, and the streets have reportedly come under control of the members of the opposition forces Hezbollah and Amal militia despite ongoing exchange of gunfire being resounding throughout the neighborhood.
Television pictures this morning reveal and predominantly deserted Beirut. Shops are closed, no cars on the street. Damage so far: bullet holes in cars, shattered shop fronts, freshly pockmarked buildings, and some smoke out of Hariri's Moustaqbal Newspaper headquarters.
Reports of dead are varying between 7 and 15, but a tally will probably be difficult to track unless the fighting factions announce the numbers.
The city yesterday was at 60% blocked, making moving between neighborhoods very difficult. The percentage today is rising although there are no firm numbers. Moving between East and West Beirut has become even more difficult as announcement of the sea road being cut off by opposition Amal forces.
At 3pm yesterday . . . [a] political advisor . . . received a call in the car announcing the opposition's plan to besiege the government seat in the Serrail. This morning, this unconfirmed rumor seems to be becoming a reality, as reports are saying the Serrail is surrounding by opposition forces. Unconfirmed reports are saying that the security forces of the Serrail have handed over their weapons, who knows.
On a wider scale, there are reports of fighting in the northern city of Tripoli as well as fighting in the Bekaa valley.
Although the fight which has broken out is predominantly political, it is difficult to separate the sectarian aspect of the conflict whereby so far the greatest clashes are occurring between Sunni and Shia groups. Despite the political wording in both Nasrallah's and Hariri's, the undertone was such that if you are not with us you are against us, and so bring it on... The night clashes echoed the stances.
Also, something to track is the wider regional Arab response. Depending on today's local political positions and regional positions may help the picture of what is to come.
WHAT LED TO THE PRESENT CRISIS:
In the beginning of the week, the Lebanese government removed the head of security from the airport, a government employee who was a supporter of the opposition was sacked, and Hezbollah controlled surveillance cameras were removed from the airport. The impact of the decision has been explosive, yesterday Nasrallah explained in his speech that the decision should be revoked and that anyone tampering with their surveillance system was essentially acting for the benefit of Israel.
The Hariri well, I don't have it under hand, however it would seem that this morning's results mean that what televised offer he made, it was rejected.
SIDE LINE:
ONE NON-OFFICIAL REPORT Describing a TACTIC on the ground
A pro-opposition source called to explained that the tactic on the ground is to take control of key neighborhoods and news outlets of the various loyalist/ or pro-government factions. From here on, it is a matter of time before government seat will fall.
German-speaking readers will also be interested in her piece in Der Spiegel.
posted by Juan Cole @ 5/09/2008 01:17:00 PM
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Okay, what's israel's next move going to be? I can't imagine they're going to tolerate a very public Hizbollah control of and presence in Beirut. The Establishment Television media are making it a point to stress that Hizbollah is IRANIAN and SYRIAN backed......
From the jpost:
Hizbullah gunmen seized control of key parts of Beirut from Sunnis loyal to the US-backed government Friday, in a dramatic show-of-force.
An ally of Hizbullah said the group intended to pull back, at least partially, from the areas its gunmen occupied overnight and Friday morning - signaling that Hizbullah likely does not intend a full-scale, permanent takeover of Sunni Muslim parts of Beirut.
The clashes eased by Friday evening as Lebanon's army began peacefully moving into some areas where Hizbullah gunmen had a presence.
Lebanon's army largely stood aside as the Shi'ite militiamen scattered their opponents and occupied large swaths of the capital's Muslim sector early Friday.
In one instance, the army stood aside as Shi'ite militiamen burned the building of the newspaper of their main Sunni rival - acting only to evacuate people and then allow firefighters later to put out the blaze.
The army has pledged to keep the peace but not take sides in the long political deadlock - which pits Shi'ite Hizbullah and a handful of allies including some Christian groups, against the US-backed government, which includes Christian and Sunni Muslims.
President Shimon Peres said Friday that it was clear that this onslaught was part of Iran's attempts to take over the Middle East.
"It is a tragedy for Lebanese residents," added Peres. "It has no connection whatsoever with Israel. It is internal conflict."
"As a human being and as an Israeli I pray that a civil war is avoided," he said, Army Radio reported.
Three days of street battles and gunfights capped by Friday's Hizbullah move have killed at least 14 people and wounded 20 - the country's worst sectarian fighting since the 1975-1990 civil war.
Three more people were killed in two separate incidents on Friday after the Hizbullah takeover. Two of them were Druse allies of Hizbullah who died in a shooting in a hilly suburb southeast of the capital late Friday, security officials said.
The takeover by the Iranian- and Syrian-backed Hizbullah was a blow to US policy as President George W. Bush's administration has been a staunch supporter of the government in Beirut over the last three years.
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For anyone who reads French this online newspaper from Lebanon has been regularly updated: L'Orient-Le Jour.
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It took 2.5 hours to Hezbollah to control Beirut . Keep in mind the respectfull actitude of Hezbollah towards the Lebanese government all this past months . Negotiating a president , suffering insults , etc , etc . And all the time they knew they could control Beirut in less than 3 hours . How stupid of Siniora . He thought Hezbollah benevolence was weakness ... He thought that the shade of Bush made him formidable ...He thought the mercenarys he brought in from the north would risk their lives for him... he thought in the worst scenary there would be a civil war he could win whith american help ... but the truth is that Siniora´s party has very very little popular suport . Christians are indiferent , Druzes dont mind him , Shia people hate him and Suni people see him as a friend of Bush and Israel . There will be no civil war . The army will not help Siniora . More than half of it is Shia and this part would split and join Hezbollah . Half of the christians are also pro-hezbollah . For a civil war to evolve there must be two sides . Siniora simply has no side . His power has been reduced to a sunni district of Beirut snd some isolated enclaves in Beeka , Sidon and Tripoli . The only thing that can save him is an american intervention .This would be a very bad idea for even the sunnis would fight the invading americans. But then Bush is not very brilliant ... (Watch Beirut airport this week ).
Some media reports and commentary are trying to paint the events of the last days as a bid by Hizbollah to take over Lebanon... Here are a few things that are conveniently omitted in such commentary that I would like to point out here:
1. There are reports that Sunni elements were brought into Beirut to provide a militia for the March 14 alliance over the last few months. The Hibollah and Amal militia men have captured, disarmed and detained these elements. The fighting, as brief as it was, was mostly between these Sunni militia groups and the Hizbollah-led groups, if one can call it that.
2. This is not merely a Hizbollah action but a larger opposition militia action wherein both the secular Shiite Amal militia and the non-Shiite SSNP militia have taken on significant roles in the fighting. For example, the Future TV offices were burned by SSNP fighters, and the Hariri offices were ransacked by Amal.
3. The Christian Maronite forces loyal to Gen. Michel Aoun have not taken part in active violence from what I have seen in wire reports and photography, but Aoun has strongly backed the opposition forces actions that have been limited to Sunni areas of Beirut. Also, there has been no fighting in the Christian majority East Beirut.
4. The opposition militias of Hizbollah, Amal and SSNP have handed over buildings to the Lebanese Army and are not occupying Beirut.
5. The Lebanese Army has remained 'neutral' - I suspect this is because a large portion of the non-com ranks of the Army consists of Shiites loyal to Amal and Hizbollah who would not fight against the opposition militias. Also, the commissioned officers in the upper ranks might also have significant loyalties to Gen. Michel Aoun, as opposed to Samir Geagea, and therefore the officer corps might also split if forced to attack the opposition militias.
I look forward to readers' responses to these elements.
- Abhinav
Robert Fisk, once again in the right spot at the right time, has this to say ...
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/fisk/hizbollah-rules-west-beirut-in-irans-proxy-war-with-us-825430.html?r=RSS
Another American humiliation.
No, this is not a civil war. Nor is it a coup d'etat, though it meets some of the criteria. It is part of the war against America in the Middle East. The Hizbollah "must stop sowing trouble," the White House said rather meekly. Yes, like the Taliban. And al-Qa'ida. And the Iraqi insurgents. And Hamas. And who else?
It's obvious. The lebanese government wanted to import US made weapons and they didn't want Hizballah to know which kind of (heacvy (??)) weapons were brought in.
There's an interesting blog from Lebanon that's still online and the owners are taking questions, here:
BloggingBeirut
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Such a striking parallel. In Iraq we see the US-backed gov't suddenly moving to use military force against the al Sadr movement. Now in Lebanon another US-backed gov't moves suddenly against Hezbollah, also a large popular Shiite mass movement. Time magazine suggests the action in Lebanon is due to US influence, and attributes its timing to the clock running out on the Bush administration. Here is the link:
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1738748,00.html
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