KHALDEH (HRNW) – A deadly battle between Lebanese Sunnis and Shi ites overnight prompted warnings of more violence as the country is pushed to breaking point by a financial meltdown and political tensions.
Two people – a 13-year-old Lebanese Sunni boy and a Syrian man – were killed in the Khaldeh area south of the capital in the shootout on Thursday night.
Machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades were used in the fighting which witnesses said lasted four hours.
A Sunni Arab tribe to which the boy belonged accused members of the powerful, Iran-backed Shi’ite group Hezbollah of opening fire. Hezbollah categorically denied having anything to do with the incident.
The Lebanese army, which was heavily deployed in the area on Friday, said the problem spiralled out of a row over a poster put up by Shi’ites to commemorate Ashura, the 7th century martyrdom of Imam Hussein.
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