MIDDLE EAST:FIGHTING BETWEEN pro-government and opposition militias spread north and to the eastern Chouf mountains last night, but tense calm reigned in western Beirut two days after Hizbullah and its allies seized control.
At least 46 people have been killed in Lebanon's worst internal fighting since the civil war, which flared up last week after the western-backed government banned Iranian- and Syrian-backed Hizbullah's separate telephone network and sacked an airport security official close to the Shia guerrillas. Hizbullah secretary general Hassan Nasrallah called the challenge, which followed allegations that the group was spying on the airport with surveillance cameras, a "declaration of war on the resistance and its weapons", which he said included the communications system.
Hizbullah and Shia ally Amal beefed up their barricades on main roads into central Beirut with piles of earth, but the only weapons visible on the streets were in the hands of the army, which overturned the two government decisions on Saturday.
The airport remained closed for the fifth day running.
Gunfights raged even after Druze chieftain Walid Jumblatt asked his long-time Druze rival in the Chouf mountains, Hizbullah ally Talal Arslan, to mediate to call off Shia gunmen battling his men and let in the army.
Arab foreign ministers meeting in Cairo yesterday called for an immediate ceasefire and offered to send a high-level delegation to negotiate a peace deal.