US POLICY on the Middle East suffered a major blow yesterday as Hezbollah fighters seized control of Muslim west Beirut, tightening their grip on the city after routing supporters of the western-backed government.
At least 13 people have been killed and 30 wounded in three days of battles between pro- government gunmen and fighters loyal to Hezbollah.
The fighting was the worst since the 1975-90 civil war, and brought familiar scenes of young men with
assault rifles roaming the streets amid smashed cars and smouldering buildings.
The White House said it was "very troubled" by Hezbollah's move and urged Iran and Syria to halt their support for the Lebanese militant group.
Britain was one of several governments to warn its citizens against all travel to Lebanon, amid fears of a return to all-out civil war.
Lebanon's governing coalition said Hezbollah's takeover was an "armed coup" aimed at bringing Syria back into the country and serving Iran's interests. By yesterday afternoon the clashes had largely subsided because Hezbollah fighters were facing no more resistance.
Hezbollah's lightning seizure was a demonstration of strength by the Shia militia, and a humiliating setback for Saad al-Hariri, a leader of the pro-western governing coalition who is Lebanon's top Sunni politician.
The sudden convulsion of violence has boosted the influence of Iran and Syria, and dented the prestige of the United States and France, which support Mr Hariri's movement.
"The government threw down a challenge to Hezbollah, which called its bluff by saying, 'if you will want to assert your authority over us you'll have to use force'. The government doesn't have that force and so is now looking weak, along with its supporters outside the country," Gerald Butt, editor of the prestigious Middle East Economic Survey, told The Scotsman.
The street battles were sparked by a government move on Monday to shut down Hezbollah's private telephone network. But by yesterday morning it was Mr Hariri's communications outlets that were silenced, as Hezbollah gunmen surrounded and shut down his Future Television station and set fire to the offices of his party's newspaper.
The government had also accused Hezbollah of using hidden security cameras at Beirut airport to conduct surveillance of government figures, and dismissed its head of airport security.
The Hezbollah leader, Hassan Nasrallah, described the twin moves by the government as a "declaration of war… on behalf of the United States and Israel" and demanded that both measures be rescinded.
The Shia militia views its fibre-optic land-line telephone network as an essential military component. The system enabled its fighters to communicate during Israel's failed onslaught against Hezbollah in 2006.
The full article contains 450 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
