Syrian conflict lands Lebanon in bloodiest fighting since civil war

BLACK smoke rose above the blocks of flats on the hill above Sidon, marking one of the bloodiest days of fighting in Lebanon since its civil war.

Lebanon

BLACK smoke rose above the blocks of flats on the hill above Sidon, marking one of the bloodiest days of fighting in Lebanon since its civil war ended more than 20 years ago.

Bullets zinged overhead and a hidden machine gun responded with a burst of fire aimed at the port's Abra neighbourhood.

"Get off the road," a Hezbollah gunman yelled as he sheltered by the wall of a three-storey house. "There are snipers. Come to us."

In the most serious spasm of violence to spill over from the civil war in neighbouring Syria, Sidon faced a second day of skirmishes this week as army special forces, backed by Hezbollah fighters, stormed a mosque and compound belonging to Ahmad Assir. The radical Sunni cleric, an outspoken Hezbollah opponent, was holed up there with about 300 well-armed followers.

By early yesterday (AEST), troops had seized the compound and were pursuing fleeing Sunni gunmen and checking the buildings for booby traps. Sheik Assir, who had vowed to die a martyr in his compound, apparently escaped through a tunnel. His whereabouts were unknown. However, Bassam al-Dada, a spokesman for the Free Syrian Army, told Lebanon's al-Jadeed television that Sheik Assir had reached Syria and was planning to form a "free Lebanon army".

The fighting left at least 20 soldiers and numerous Asir followers dead, making it the worst conflict in Sidon since the end of Lebanon's 1975-90 civil war. Dozens of gunmen were captured and about 25 were said to have surrendered.

The clashes began on Sunday when a dispute at a Lebanese army checkpoint between soldiers and Sheik Assir's supporters turned into a gunbattle that quickly spread to other areas of the city.

On Sunday night, a delegation of Sunni clerics tried to mediate between the two sides, but neither was prepared to yield. "Assir wants to be a martyr," said Maher Hammoud, a cleric allied to Hezbollah despite being a Sunni. "The army is not accepting any mediation. The army wants to arrest or kill him."

Sheik Assir is a firebrand whose outspoken criticism of Hezbollah has won him notoriety and support from Lebanon's Sunni community. Tensions between Lebanese Shi'ites and Sunnis have been simmering for years but have risen sharply since Hezbollah began fighting with the Syrian army against the mostly Sunni Syrian rebels. President Bashar al-Assad and much of Syria's officer corps are Alawite, an obscure offshoot of Shia Islam.

Yesterday, these tensions spilt over on to Lebanon's complex sectarian patchwork. Lebanese army positions beside the Ain al-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp came under attack from Palestinian extremists who support Sheik Assir, despite the efforts of the camp's leadership to stay out of the fighting.

Yesterday in the camp, shops were closed and school exams postponed.

"Assir is an Israeli dog. He is destroying the country," said Khalil Kurdi, pointing at his shop, shuttered against the fighting. "He gets lots of money from abroad and he doesn't care that we are suffering."

Although the Lebanese army's special forces units spearheaded the attack on Sheik Assir's compound, they had Hezbollah's battle-hardened fighters to back them up.

"Haj", the Hezbollah commander in the eastern edge of Abra, marshalled dozens of fighters. He is a relaxed-looking, middle-aged man dressed in jeans, loafers and a striped shirt.

"Today we are doing surgery," Haj said. "We are removing a cancerous gland in a quick, clean operation to cure the city."