Reuters

Hezbollah in control of west Beirut

Updated 11.30 Fri May 09 2008

Keywords: Hezbollah, Lebanon

Lebanon's Iranian-backed Hezbollah has taken control of west Beirut after three days of battles with pro-government gunmen.

Security sources said at least 11 people had been killed and 30 wounded in the bloody fighting.

Security officials said 11 people were killed and more than 30 wounded in three days of sectarian fighting

The fighting was triggered this week after the US-backed government of Prime Minister Fuad Saniora took decisions targeting Hezbollah's military communications network.

The Shia political movement, which has a powerful guerrilla army, said the government had declared war.

Mr Saniora has only a slim majority in parliament, and the two sides have been locked in a 17-month power struggle that has kept government at a standstill and blocked a presidential election.

The sound of exploding grenades and automatic gunfire echoed across a city still rebuilding from the civil war that killed 150,000 Lebanese and left wide swaths of Beirut in ruins.

Saudi Arabia, a strong backer of the governing coalition, called for an emergency meeting of Arab foreign ministers over the crisis. The fight could have implications for the entire Middle East at a time when Sunni-Shiite tensions are high.

The tensions are fuelled in part by the rivalry between predominantly Shia Iran, which sponsors Hezbollah, and Sunni Arab countries like Saudi Arabia and Egypt.

A pro-government leader called for dialogue.

Walid Jumblatt, leader of the Druze minority, said: "The party, regardless of its military strength, cannot annul the other. Dialogue alone brings results. Running away from dialogue is not useful."

Hezbollah gunmen took control of media outlets owned by governing coalition leader Saad al-Hariri, Lebanon's strongest Sunni politician. Mr Hariri's television and radio stations went off the air.

Hezbollah, a Shia group which is also backed by Syria, had been steadily seizing offices of pro-government factions in the predominantly Muslim western half of the city.

Backed by the Shia Amal group, Hezbollah fighters have been handing control of the offices to the army - which is trying to play a neutral role in the crisis.

A security source said Hezbollah and its allies were in control all of the mainly Muslim half of Beirut after pro-government gunmen laid down their weapons in their last stronghold.