Hezbollah takes over West-Beirut (2)
Posted on 05/11/2008 - 21:46
BY MENASSAT.COM STAFF

*** MENASSAT WILL BE POSTING INFORMATION ABOUT THE SITUATION IN BEIRUT AS IT COMES IN. ***

 POSTED AT 10:50 PM ON SUNDAY, MAY 11, 2008


yalibnan.com


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POSTED AT 9:43 PM ON SUNDAY, MAY 11, 2008

THE VIEW FROM TRIPOLI

Dutch journalist Harald Doornbos was in Tripoli today and interviewed al-Mustaqbal MP Mustafa Allouch moments after he had heard that al-Jabal had surrendered to (Hezbollah, Talal Arslan, the army – take your pick.) He also brings back news that 22 Sunni officers in the Lebanese army in Tripoli "filed their resignation and quit the army" today, saying, "The army is not doing anything against Hezbollah, thus making it a pro-Hezbollah tool".

Harald Doornbos blogs at harryzzz.blogspot.com.



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POSTED AT 5:24 PM ON SUNDAY, MAY 11, 2008

JUMBLATT AGREES TO HAND OVER MOUNTAIN WEAPONS TO ARMY

After heavy fighting between Hezbollah and fighters loyal to Walid Jumblatt's PSP, Jumblatt has asked rival Druze leader Talal Arslan, who is allied to the opposition, to negotiate a peaceful settlement. In a late afternoon news conference, Arslan said:  "I have negotiated with PSP leader Walid Jumblatt on some security issues related to the PSP arms in al-Jabal… and my peers in the opposition have agreed that the PSP centers and arms should be handed over to the Lebanese army, in coordination with Jumblatt."

Jumblatt has earlier told LBC: "We urge Mir Talal Arslan to hand al-Jabal over to the army."


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POSTED AT 2:48 PM ON SUNDAY, MAY 11, 2008

IMPRESSIONS FROM BEIRUT  © yalibnan.com / AFP / arabimages.com

 



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POSTED AT 12:53 PM ON SUNDAY, MAY 11, 2008

Ex-Premier Omar Karami: "Media institutions owned by pro-government factions and extremist factions have played a big role in widening the sectarian divide. We support the freedom of the media and condemn what has happened with Future media, regardless of what we have suffered because of them."


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POSTED AT 8:38 PM ON SATURDAY, MAY 10, 2008

DEATH TOLL RISES TO 34

At least 16 people were killed in clashes in Lebanon on Saturday between supporters of the government and the opposition, security and hospital officials said.

Fierce clashes in the Akkar region of north Lebanon killed 14 people, including civilians, when members of the Syrian Social Nationalist Party battled supporters of the Future Movement, a security official said.

"The headquarters of the Syrian Social National Party (SSNP) in Halba fell to the Future Movement forces," said the official, adding that seven people were found dead inside.

In Beirut, gunmen killed two people and wounded 20 in an attack on the funeral of a civilian killed in clashes on Thursday, a hospital official said.

"We had two dead, two people in critical condition and about 20 injured this morning," the official at Makassed hospital said, revising downwards a previous toll of six dead given by the hospital.

A Lebanese army spokesman said the owner of a scrap metal shop near the route of the funeral procession had been arrested in connection with the shooting.

The spokesman said the suspect had been handed over to military police but declined to give further details.

Saturday's killings bring to 34 the number of people killed in four days of fighting between the supporters of the government and the opposition supporters. Dozens more have been injured.

Tripoli, the main city in northern Lebanon, was also the scene of sectarian violence.

"The offices of the Syrian Social Nationalist Party as well as Hezbollah's offices in the area have been torched and damaged by supporters of the Future Movement," the security official said.

He said the Lebanese flag and pictures of slain former premier Rafik Hariri were hung outside the offices. The billionaire was assassinated in 2005 in a bombing widely blamed on Syria although Damascus has denied any involvement.

Control of the Tripoli office of Christian opposition leader Michel Aoun was handed over to the army, the official added.

In another incident, seven Syrian laborers from Aleppo and their driver from south Lebanon were wounded by gunmen who set up a checkpoint on the Minya highway north of Tripoli, the official said.

-AFP/NOW Staff

 


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POSTED AT 8:23 PM ON SATURDAY, MAY 10, 2008

Lebanese opposition says it will end Beirut takeover

BEIRUT (AFP) — Lebanon's Hezbollah-led opposition on Saturday said it was ending its takeover of west Beirut after the army revoked government moves against the Shiite group that sparked deadly fighting.

"The opposition welcomes the army's decision and will proceed with the withdrawal of all its armed elements so that control of the capital is handed over to the military," opposition MP Ali Hassan Khalil of Hezbollah ally Amal said.

His comments came shortly after the army said it was overturning a government decision to reassign the head of airport security and to probe a communications network set up by Hezbollah.

Khalil said, however, that the opposition would maintain a civil disobedience campaign against the Western-backed government.

The army also called for all armed militants to withdraw from the streets as the death toll from the violence rose to more than 30 amid renewed clashes across the country.

"The army command calls on all parties to (help restore calm) by ending armed protests and withdrawing gunmen from the streets and opening the roads," the military said in a statement.

It said that the head of airport security, who had been reassigned from his job, would remain in his post pending an investigation and that the army itself would look into the communications network set up by the militant group.

"Brigadier General Wafiq Shqeir will remain in his post until appropriate procedural measures have been taken after a probe," the statement said.

"As for the telecommunications network, the army will look into the issue in a manner that is not harmful to the public interest or the security of the resistance" against Israel, it said.

The military said it had taken these decisions in the light of a government wish that it rule on these matters.

The army statement came shortly after Prime Minister Fuad Siniora made a televised address to the nation in which he accused Hezbollah of staging an armed coup and also urged the military to restore order.

READ MORE

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POSTED AT 12:57 PM ON SATURDAY, MAY 10, 2008

LATEST NEWS:

- NOW LEBANON: Journalists and media personnel have reached the Future Channel building in Qantari after holding a march from the Bourj Al-Ghazali Tower in Tabaris in solidarity with Future media employees, who were routed out of their offices and harassed by opposition members.

- AL JADEED: Only two dead admitted at Al-Makassed hospital from Tareq Al-Jadeede incident today and 25 wounded.

- LBC: Four dead in Tareq Al-Jadeede today, apparently after someone opened fire on a funeral.

- LBC: The Armenian Sevan radio station in Mar Elias has been set on fire.

- OTV: Violent confrontations are taking place in Halba in Akkar between SSNP and Future supporters.

- AP: Clashes in Aley between the opposition and supporters of Druze leader Walid Jumbaltt left four people dead on the opposition side on Friday night. Another civilian died in clashes in the southern city of Sidon.

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POSTED AT 11:52 AM ON SATURDAY, MAY 10, 2008

BEIRUT CALM

An uneasy calm settled over west Beirut on Saturday as people ventured out in the affected areas and cleaning crews swept away the debris.

Few armed elements could be seen on the streets and the army was out in force manning roadblocks. However, the main road leading to the airport remained blocked for a fourth straight day and there were no scheduled incoming or outgoing flights.

"The presence of armed elements has significantly decreased and there is no danger any more for civilians," an army spokesman told AFP.

READ MORE

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POSTED AT 23:00 PM ON FRIDAY, MAY 9, 2008

A Photographic tour in Beirut at the end of the day;

© Samer Mohdad / arabimages.com

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POSTED AT 5:42 PM ON FRIDAY, MAY 9, 2008

*** PSP leader Walid Jumblatt was interviewed on New TV - here's what he said:

- The future of the country lies with consensus;
- Do we not have the right to ask for accounting when it comes to the security of the airport?
- The government will not resign;
- I am satisfied with the performance of the Lebanese army;
- I have told my supporters in the mountains to remain calm and to remove their roadblocks;
- Hezbollah's promise that it will never use its weapons against other Lebanese is now moot.
- Neither we nor the Future Movement have organized militias.

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POSTED AT 5:42 PM ON FRIDAY, MAY 9, 2008

WAR ON THE MEDIA - NOW LEBANON

Opposition fighters have specifically targeted pro-government and independent media outlets as part of their takeover of western Beirut since Thursday afternoon.

Major pro-government daily An-Nahar journalist Mohammed Salem’s apartment in Wetwat was stormed by gunmen, but he had safely evacuated to the town of Aley. Elsewhere, Rosanna Bou Mounsef, also a journalist with An-Nahar told NOW Lebanon by telephone that she was in Jounieh waiting to see how the situation developed before heading in to the office. An-Nahar offices, located in the downtown district, currently surrounded by the opposition sit-in, were open and working normally, and reported that they had received no threats.

Bou Mounsef told NOW Lebanon, “I don’t think they would attack An-Nahar. Maybe some individual journalists perhaps, but An-Nahar is something different. But I don’t know; there is no logic to the situation and what is going on.”

An Al-Arabiya television crew was also briefly taken prisoner in the southern suburbs of Beirut on Thursday. Hezbollah members released them after half an hour.

Reports have also come in that the managing editor of Lebanese daily Al-Mustaqbal (Future) was personally attacked by Hezbollah gunmen, and that gunmen had entered the offices of March 14-aligned Al-Shiraa magazine in Verdun.

The March 14 website www.14march.org also reported receiving threats from Hezbollah, but vowed to continue publishing, either from Lebanon or abroad.

Supporters of Hezbollah forced the shutdown of several Future and Future News television station offices in west Beirut on Friday, attacking the buildings with rocket propelled grenades and machine gun fire. The Future newspaper offices in Ramlat al-Bayda were attacked Friday morning, setting fire to the fourth floor. Future News offices in Raouche were set on fire Friday afternoon, with efforts to put out the blaze ongoing hours later.

 “Armed gunmen surrounded the building, stormed into the garage and demanded through the army the shutdown of the station,” the director of Future News, Nadim Munla, told AFP.

Future and Future News television stations, both owned by the Hariri-led Future Movement, are now off the air. LBC reported Friday that Future News had been forced to hand over their offices in Taalabay in the Bekaa Valley to Amal militia forces, though Future members denied this, saying that instead the offices were under control of the Lebanese army.

Fierce clashes between supporters of the government and the Hezbollah-led opposition have rocked a number of neighborhoods in west Beirut in the last three days, leaving at least 11 dead and dozens injured. Hezbollah and opposition militias appear to be consolidating their hold in the western areas of the city.

- NOW Staff

SOURCE: WWW.NOWLEBANON.COM

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POSTED AT 5:22 PM ON FRIDAY, MAY 9, 2008

Hundreds flood Lebanon border crossings with Syria – AFP

Hundreds of people flooded Lebanon's border crossings with Syria on Friday to escape the deadly sectarian violence that has shaken the country over the last three days. Crowds of men, women and children gathered at the Arida border crossing in the north and the Masnaa crossing in the east seeking to make their way out of Lebanon, AFP correspondents witnessed.

Those fleeing the fighting -- which has threatened to plunge Lebanon into a fresh civil war -- included British, American, German and Cypriots as well as numerous Syrian laborers.

Several Arab states have already begun evacuating their nationals from Lebanon, whose only international airport and the Beirut port have been shut down because of the crisis.

"I have been here for more than two and a half hours and I lost two buttons on my shirt already because of the mayhem," said one traveler at the Arida crossing.

Shelagh, a British woman in her 60s who would only give her first name, said she was on a 10-day visit to Lebanon when fierce clashes between Sunni supporters of the ruling bloc and opposition Shiite militants erupted Thursday.

"I was supposed to leave Sunday and decided instead to leave today in case it got worse," she told AFP. "It seemed like the most sensible thing to do was to leave now."

She said though the experience has been trying, it had not put her off from returning some day.

"I like Lebanon and this has not put me off."

Lebanon's international airport has been virtually shut down since Wednesday as anti-government protests escalated with militants blocking the main road with burning tires and other obstacles.

An airport official said all flight had been canceled on Friday and it was unclear when traffic would resume, adding: "As soon as they open the road, the flights will resume."


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POSTED AT 5:22 PM ON FRIDAY, MAY 9, 2008

Bloomberg's Massoud A. Derhally and Maher Chmaytelli have been working the phones, talking to army Army Brigadier Saleh Haj Suleiman and Telecommunications Minister Marwan Hamadeh among others.

BEIRUT UNREST KILLS 10 AS HEZBOLLAH PRESSURES SINIORA (Update1)

By Massoud A. Derhally and Maher Chmaytelli

May 9 (Bloomberg) -- Gun battles raged across western and southern Beirut, leaving 10 people dead, as fighters from the Shiite group Hezbollah pressed their party's challenge to Lebanon's pro-Western government.

Masked bands of Shiite gunmen were shown by television networks as they roamed neighborhoods dominated by Sunni Muslims, who largely back Prime Minister Fouad Siniora's administration. The army was deployed in parts of the capital to control the unrest. In addition to the deaths in Beirut in three days of violence, five civilians were hurt as fighting erupted in the Bekaa Valley, the International Committee of the Red Cross said.

"What's going on defies logic,'" Army Brigadier Saleh Haj Suleiman said today in a phone interview from Beirut. "The army is in control of Beirut, but there is sporadic gunfire and wherever there are clashes the army intervenes to try and calm the situation down.''

Hezbollah has been trying to oust the Siniora government for 18 months, since the Islamic group's lawmakers walked out of the cabinet after demanding veto powers over decisions. This week's unrest has been the most violent, as the political standoff spilled over into sectarian conflict.

'No Resignation'

The government dismissed reports by Lebanese news organizations favorable to Hezbollah or other opposition groups that Siniora's government was about to collapse.

"There is no resignation, no one in this government is resigning,'' Telecommunications Minister Marwan Hamadeh said today in a phone interview from Beirut.

An adviser to Siniora, Mohammad Shateh, said in a phone interview from Beirut today the government wasn't incapacitated. The risk of civil war increases the longer the unrest goes on, he said.

"It's a dangerous situation,'' Shateh said. "As it is the situation is not one of civil war right now.''

As many as 20 people were wounded in fighting in Beirut, Major General Ashraf Reefi, head of Lebanon's security forces, said in a phone interview from the city.

Hezbollah fighters took up positions in streets near the residences of Saad Hariri, a leader of the coalition that backs Siniora, and Walid Jumblatt, political leader of the Druze minority, a Hariri spokesman said today on condition of anonymity because of fear of reprisal. Both men were at home, he said in a phone interview. A rocket-propelled grenade hit a wall of Hariri's compound without causing injuries, the spokesman said.

Click here to continue reading this article on Bloomberg.com


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POSTED AT 5:01 PM ON FRIDAY, MAY 9, 2008

FREELANCE PHOTOGRAPHER MATTHEW CASSELL TALKS ABOUT HIS PIX (5: WHAT IS THE ARMY DOING?)



MENASSAT: And so the last picture that we're discussing now is a picture of the Lebanese army. Talk about that picture and maybe talk a little bit about what you've seen - as you've been on the streets watching this fighting - what has been the role of the army and then talk a little bit about that photo?

MC: "Well the army has kind of stood by, not wanting to get involved, understandably, because the situation is so tense where the country is so divided, that if the army were to shoot a protester or a fighter from either side - that side would cause either the pro-government or opposition side to go after the army. This shot is from Thursday before the actual clashes took place.

"Like I said, during Thursday and on Wednesday there were clashes that happened - not with guns - but with the guys with sticks throwing stones and fighting with the army - and the army fired some tear gas at these young Amal guys in the Corniche al Maazra neighborhood.

"In this photo, the army is standing there blocking off the street that leads (from Corniche al Maazra) to the Tariq al Jeride neighborhood. As you can see, prime minister Fouad Sinora's picture is seen in the background. He's aligned with the pro-government forces - the March 14 movement - and MP Sa'ad Hariri's Future movement.

"Now, once the fighting erupted the army got out of there as soon as possible. We could still hear the tanks moving back and forth along Corniche al Maazra, but we can be sure that these soldiers were not standing in between RPG and Kalashnikov fire. They're blocking off Corniche al Maazra street right there and that's where all the fighting, all the shooting was going right over that street. So we're sure that all of the soldiers got out of there.

|They're (the army) are still here. They're still around. They're still doing almost nothing. I mean Hizbullah and Amal seemed to have controlled most of west Beirut by now. And the army is standing around waiting to see what's going to happen - as we all are."

MENASSAT: Where are you right now as you speak and tell us a little bit about that situation?

MC: "I'm still speaking from a Corniche al Maazra. And there's an erie silence right now after the 8 or 9 hours of clashes yesterday. I mean the whole neighborhood - you know Beirut is full of tall buildings and cramped quarters and you know, the sounds of Kalashnikov fire and RPG fire really echoes off of the buildings - so the whole neighborhood, we can be assured, wasn't sleeping as the clashes were taking place until 2:30 in the morning last night.

"I mean right now, in Corniche al Maazra, things are quiet. Some of the shops have opened up about half way to let people come in to buy supplies. People are walking on the street now. There's still some Amal fighters walking around downstairs. But you know a lot of the fighting as moved out from around Beirut now.

"There's been talk of Amal and Hezbollah possibly doing an invasion in the the Tariq al Jedide neighborhood to possibly go after the last of the real strong Future movement strongholds, which is in the densely populated Sunni area over there.

"But we'll see what's going to happen. And we're on the border of that so if something does happen, we'll be here. I mean everybody's kind of standing by, no one really knows what's going to happen. Right now there's a lot of Kalashnikov fire that seems to be about a mile or two away. I mean a lot of people have left. Maybe half of them have left for the mountains and elsewhere to escape the fighting."

Interested in buying Matthew Cassell's pictures? Send an email to justimage@gmail.com or go to http://www.photoshelter.com/usr-show/U00000N58KLo6O5o

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POSTED AT 4:48 PM ON FRIDAY, MAY 9, 2008

*** THE LATEST FROM HAMRA: "The fighting has calmed down. We haven't heard any gun shots for the past hour. We have moved out to the living room from the corridor where we've been sitting previously. I see gunmen on the street from March 8th carrying flags and weapons." Opposition militants are apparently giving interviews to foreign journalists.

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POSTED AT 4:43 PM ON FRIDAY, MAY 9, 2008

FREELANCE PHOTOGRAPHER MATTHEW CASSELL TALKS ABOUT HIS PIX (3&4: "AMAL FIGHTERS?")





MENASSAT: The next series of photographs that I'm asking you to comment on are in a sequence. The first one is a striking photograph. You are looking at a group of youth - let's get a comment on that in a little bit because they're all young people that seem to be taking part in the fighting -- but the picture I'm asking you to comment on - there's a group of youth that are looking into your lens and seeing that you're taking this photograph. One guys is actually putting up his hands and making a "V" sign. Explain that scene a little.

MC: "I don't know if that's a "V", or peace/victory sign. I think he might be giving a signal to one of the guys that was standing where I was. Because the clashes were taking place, everybody was taking cover. So here they're taking cover behind a small wall.

"Obviously there's one, if not two fighters standing with them - armed fighters. These young kids - you could see in their hands one guy holding a stick - these are younger guys. The fighters were 20's to 30's sometimes even 40-years-old. These younger guys probably were upper teenagers and were armed with sticks and stuff. They were waiting for a conflict to break out - not with guns - but one in which they could go into the Tareq al Jadeede neighborhood where they could attack members, supporters of the Future movement.  They actually clashed with police earlier just before then. Actually, throughout the day and throughout the previous day, Wednesday, many carrying rocks and sticks.

"These kids stuck around for a while. But then they got after that soon after that when the fighting continued. There's not much they can do with those sticks when people are firing one or two-hundred meters from each other with Kalashnikov's and RPG's.

MENASSAT: Let's contrast this group of youth here that we are looking at. They're clearly not of a disciplined fighting order. You were in Hamra (west Beirut) today, and although we don't have any photos, sources say that there were some 2,000 or so, camouflaged, uniformed, very disciplined Hizbullah units. So there's a contrast with what we're looking at here and the sort of real fighters that have come into to handle things?

MC: "And that's what leads people to believe that these guys (in the photo) are Amal supporters because Hezbollah seems to have a much more disciplined, well-trained, organized army or militia than Amal, and these guys were in civilian clothes. I mean Hezbollah defeated Israel in the July 2006 war, and these guys shooting from behind buildings not really knowing what they're shooting at didn't seem to have that training that a militia like Hezbollah has."

Interested in buying Matthew Cassell's pictures? Send an email to justimage@gmail.com or go to http://www.photoshelter.com/usr-show/U00000N58KLo6O5o

MORE TO FOLLOW.

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POSTED AT 4:32 PM ON FRIDAY, MAY 9, 2008

FREELANCE PHOTOGRAPHER MATTHEW CASSELL TALKS ABOUT HIS PIX (2: "THE RE-FILL BOYS")



MENASSAT: Speaking of Kalashnikovs, the next picture we're looking at now, I'm not sure who's represented in this picture - there's a fellow who is re-arming his Kalashnikov. He's on a sort of pink pillow. There's another young kid who is sitting there smoking a cigarette. Could explain that picture a little?

MC: "Those are the "re-fill boys" if you will who sit there and refill the ammo for the two fighters who are standing there, once they run out of ammunition they give the cartridge to the boys who put more bullets in it."

"That was right after the clashes began (yesterday), just one street up from Corniche al Maazra. And these guys were just firing around the corner. Now there are no reports of anyone dying in these clashes over here, even though they lasted for like 8 hours or so. These guys were just sort of coming around the corner and firing at - who knows what - there wasn't any gun shots really coming back. We didn't see any bullets hitting in this area where we were standing, but they were turning around the corner, you know firing blindly at the Tariq al Jedide neighborhood.

"Some of the bullets did come later and hit some of the buildings above and knock some debris down and then later we saw some on the street. But for the first hour so, they were just coming around the corner kind of firing their weapons not really aiming or anything. These are two of the fighters we suspect of being Amal fighters, you know, firing at the Tariq al Jedide neighborhood."

MENASSAT: So you're not sure whether they're Amal or not, and again when did this occur?

MC: "This occurred around 6 in the evening right after the clashes began. We are not sure whether they're with Amal, but they are with the opposition, that's for sure. A lot of guys were chanting Hizbullah and opposition slogans. These guys are definitely with the opposition, either Amal or Hizbullah."

Interested in buying Matthew Cassell's pictures? Send an email to justimage@gmail.com or go to http://www.photoshelter.com/usr-show/U00000N58KLo6O5o

MORE TO FOLLOW.

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POSTED AT 4:06 PM ON FRIDAY, MAY 9, 2008

FREELANCE PHOTOGRAPHER MATTHEW CASSELL TALKS ABOUT HIS PIX (1)

MATTHEW CASSELL

MENASSAT: I'm here with Matthew Cassell, freelance photograpHer and editor with Electronic Intifada. Matthew, you've been on the streets the last 2 and half or 3 days. You're actually speaking to us from Corniche Maazra. We're going to go through a series of your photographs and getting a rolling commentary about what we're looking at. The first image is actually of a fellow in front of a red door that has just fired an RPG (rocket propelled grenade). Could you explain that a little?

MATTHEW CASSELL:  "Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah gave a speech, actually a press conference yesterday that lasted a couple of hours and ended about 5pm. At about 5:30pm clashes broke out between Amal Movement (aligned with the opposition) and Mustaqbal/Future movement militants across Corniche al Maazra (in west Beirut). This guy had an RPG launcher and he had just fired it at a building in the Tariq al Jedide neighborhood (which is across the thoroughfare from Corniche al Maazra)."

MENASSAT: He is wearing what appears to be an Internal Security Forces camouflage uniform. Is there any speculation as to whether this guy is actually part of that unit or not?

MC: "That's correct. The fighters were trying to be discrete and were not talking to journalists to protect themselves. Now it's not known whether or not that this guy is a member of the ISF, but yeah, he is dressed in the same uniform.

"Throughout the day yesterday in the Corniche al Maazra neighborhood, there were many of these guys dressed in a similar uniform who could very well be police officers or could be dressing up like that. But yeah he is dressed, he is wearing the same uniform."

MENASSAT: Was there a lot of RPG fire that you witnessed yesterday?

MC: "Throughout the night, the clashes lasted pretty much from 5:30, when they started in the afternoon, in the evening, until about 2 or 2:30 in the morning, when it actually started pouring rain and thunderstorming - which may have, I don't know, calmed the guys down a bit. But, yeah there was tons of RPG fire coming from both directions.

"You know the Kalashnakov fire was pretty much constant - as actually, in the background, you can hear right now... and the RPG fire was probably once every on 10 or 15 minutes on average another one was fired. And the sounds that come from those is just tremendous. You can hear it from miles away."

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