Fighting continues in Lebanon

AP/NY Times:

Heavy fighting broke out between pro- and anti-government supporters in northern Lebanon amid the country's power struggle, security officials said Sunday.

Beirut, for four days the focus of bloody sectarian clashes between Sunnis and Shiites, spent a quiet night. However, many of its roads remained blocked, including the one to the airport, by the ongoing civil disobedience campaign of the opposition.

The heaviest clashes took place in the northern city of Tripoli, where pro-government supporters in the Tebaneh neighborhood exchanged rocket propelled grenades and heavy machine gun fire with opposition followers in Jabal Muhsin, the officials said.

One woman was killed in the clashes, bringing the toll across the country for the past five days of violence to 38 -- the worst sectarian violence since Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil war.

The fighting in the north intensified in the early hours Sunday but the situation calmed down later as Lebanese troops began deploying, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

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Meanwhile, Muslim West Beirut has been mostly calm since Hezbollah and its allies seized control of many neighborhoods Friday from Sunnis loyal to the government.

In the eastern Bekaa Valley, sporadic clashes took place between the two groups in different towns and villages. The road leading to the main border crossing point with Syria was still closed by pro-government supporters in retaliation for the opposition's closure of the airport road.

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While the government was reasserting control it was also making concessions to Hezballah that gave them most of what they wanted. It appears that Hezballah continues to view the existence of the government as one of its indulgences. This suggest that we are witnessing another lull in an on going battle for control of Lebanon with no one really in charge. The government is too weak to assert sovereignty over the Hezzies and the Hezzies know that their control of the government would not be considered legitimate. The low grade political battle goes on.

Gateway Pundit has a huge round up on the fighting in Tripoli where Sunni resistance to the Hezballah aggression is strong and deadly.

Michael Totten discusses what he calls Lebanon's "Third Civil War."

CNN is now reporting that the fight has spread into the hills around the Druze strongholds near Mount Lebanon. It appears that the Hezbalalh forces are using heavy artillery and possibly rockets in the attack. The Druze are probably well dug in. The leaders of the Druze, Walid Jumblatt, issued a statement that rates a No Kidding. "What is happening now in Mount Lebanon is a threat for civil peace."

See how the violence has spread »

Jumblatt is seeking a cease fire.