Hezbollah battles Salafists overnight in Beirut

Lebanese government sends in troops to restore order after worst sectarian fighting in years

By AP 23 March 2014, 10:13 am

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Lebanese Army soldiers deploy after overnight clashes between Sunni and Shiite gunmen in Beirut, Lebanon, Oct. 22, 2012 (photo credit: AP/Hussein Malla, File)

BEIRUT — Syria-related clashes between Hezbollah, Sunni supporters of Syrian President Bashar Assad, and Salafist opponents of the regime have prompted Lebanese troops to deploy to a Beirut neighborhood to calm tensions.

Soldiers in armored personnel carriers and Humvees fanned across the predominantly Sunni neighborhood of Tariq Jadideh on Sunday morning.

The deployment came after rival Sunni gunmen exchanged gunfire and rocket-propelled-grenades for several hours in the area, in the worst fighting in the Lebanese capital in nearly two years.

Shaker Birjawi, head of the pro-Assad Arab Movement Party, says four of his followers were wounded in the fighting. State-run National News Agency says Birjawi’s AMP fought against rival Sunni gunmen.

The fighting comes after days of clashes, also related to the civil war next door in Syria, killed 25 people in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli.