The army said on Monday it was determined to restore order in Lebanon, roiled by growing political tensions linked to Syria after a top policeman was murdered and former premier Rafiq Hariri called for the government to step down.
Amid fears Lebanon will be further affected by the conflict in Syria, the envoys to Beirut of the UN Security Council’s permanent members condemned any attempt to destabilise the situation and called for national unity. The army is “committed to its role of stopping security breaches and maintaining civil order,” a statement from the high command said.
“Recent developments prove decidedly that the country is going through a critical time, and the level of tension in some areas has reached unprecedented levels,” it said. It will take “resolute measures, particularly in areas of mounting sectarian friction… to prevent the assassination of martyred General Wissam al-Hassan from being exploited as an opportunity to murder the nation as a whole.” Hassan, a Sunni Muslim, died in a car bomb attack on Friday widely blamed on Syria, and his
death has prompted much of the violence since then.
Lebanon is a multi-faith country in which Christians, Shiite and Sunni Muslims each make up about one-third of the population.
It has a complex, but unwritten arrangement under which the president must always be a Maronite Christian, the premier a Sunni and the speaker of parliament a Shiite.
The army statement came as troops responded after being fired on as they tried to clear a road in the capital that had been blocked by partisans of
Hariri despite his calls for them to
stay off the streets.
In the northern port of Tripoli, a Sunni bastion where opposition to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is strong, a woman was killed on Monday and a four-year-old girl wounded in clashes with Alawites, an offshoot of Shiite Islam to which Assad belongs.
During the night, three people were killed and 26 wounded in heavy
fighting in the city.
Clashes have erupted regularly in Tripoli between pro- and anti-Assad supporters as tensions spill across the border from Syria, where a 19-month-old anti-regime revolt has left more than 34,000 people dead.
In the capital, six people were wounded after the army made a pre-dawn sweep through the Sunni district of Tariq Jdideh in pursuit of armed men, and automatic weapons and anti-tank rocket fire could be heard.
