Clashes in Lebanon kill at least 6 as Syrian conflict spreads

OMAR IBRAHIM/REUTERS - Sunni Muslim gunmen, hold up their weapons as they roam the streets, expressing solidarity with Salafist leader Ahmad al-Assir in Tripoli, on June 23, 2013. At least three Lebanese soldiers were killed in the coastal city of Sidon on Sunday in clashes with followers of a Sunni Islamist cleric who is a fierce critic of Hezbollah's military intervention in neighboring Syria, a security official said.

By Loveday Morris, Updated: Sunday, June 23, 2:28 PM E-mail the writers

BEIRUT — Clashes raged in the southern Lebanon city of Sidon on Sunday night, claiming the lives of six army soldiers as violence triggered by the war in Syria engulfed its smaller neighbor.
The army said it was the subject of a “cold-blooded” attack by armed gunmen intent on plunging Lebanon back into the strife of its own 15-year civil war. Sunni militiamen loyal to outspoken Sidon cleric Sheikh Ahmed Assir fired rocket-propelled grenades, while snipers targeted military vehicles during the standoff.

Reporters roam the city seeking clues to the whereabouts of the former National Security Agency contractor.

It was the second time that clashes have erupted in Sidon, a coastal city 25 miles south of the capital, in less than a week, signaling Lebanon’s growing inability to insulate itself from the war in Syria. The fighting intensified as the day wore on, and ignited isolated security incidents in the capital Beirut and the flashpoint northern city of Tripoli, with roads blocked up and down the coast.
The war in Syria has polarized Lebanon, straining relations between Sunnis and Shiites. The situation has been further conflagrated by the decision of the powerful Lebanese Shiite militant movement Hezbollah to send fighters to back President Bashar al-Assad’s forces in Syria.
Assir, a vehement critic of Hezbollah, has clashed with the Shiite movement’s supporters in Sidon in the past, but the intense exchange with the army Sunday presented a dangerous escalation.
“What happened today in Sidon went beyond all expectations,” the army said in a harshly-worded statement. “The army was targeted in a cold-blooded and deliberate attack.”
It said six soldiers, including three officers, had been killed in the attack, with 19 others injured. The statement evoked comparisons to Lebanon in 1975, when a strike by fishermen in Sidon is considered by many to have been a key incident in setting the fuse for civil war.
The army said Sunday’s fighting began when supporters of Assir launched an unprovoked attack on one of its checkpoints in the Abra neighborhood of the city. Lebanese television said that the army had earlier arrested several of Assir’s supporters.
Black smoke rose above the largely Sunni neighborhood in which it was centered as buildings caught fire. The clashes caused panic in the normally sleepy southern city, sending residents fleeing for safety.
The army had surrounded Assir’s mosque in the early hours of Monday morning, with the cleric believed to be holed up inside. Two Sunni gunmen also were killed in the fighting.
In fragile Lebanon, the army is seen by many as the institution that holds the country together. Assir posted a video online Sunday saying he was under attack from the army and called for Sunni soldiers to defect. He lambasted the armed forces for working at the behest of the Iranians and Hezbollah and urged Sunnis to block roads in solidarity.
Lebanese President Michel Suleiman called for an emergency meeting with ministers and security officials on Monday to discuss how to contain the violence. He said Assir’s calls for “jihad” against the military only served Lebanon’s enemies.
Heavy military deployments could be seen in the capital amid fears the violence would spread. The road from Beirut to Sidon was blocked by burning tires for several hours, while gunmen also blocked roads in the northern city of Tripoli, where an army base came under attack from rocket-propelled grenade fire. Roads were also blocked in the capital, where clashes briefly broke out in Beirut’s southern suburbs, according to Future TV.
Issam Majzoub, a Sunni leader in Masnaa, in the eastern Bekaa Valley, said he was gathering supporters to close the main crossing into Syria.
“Either the army is for everyone or we will have our own army,” he said.
Across the border in Syria, the cycle of violence continued Sunday with a spate of bomb attacks. Three suicide bombers targeted a security building in the Rukn al-Din area of the capital Damascus, killing five people, according to official state media. Meanwhile, 12 died in a bomb blast in the northern city of Aleppo, according to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Ahmed Ramadan and Suzan Haidamous contributed to this report.

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