Torog
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Message #114455 posted by Torog (Info) May 09, 2008 09:46:11 ET
From Times Online May 9, 2008
On-the-spot: Lebanon's 'one-sided civil war'
The Times Correspondent in Lebanon describes the scene in shocked West Beirut after the sudden Hezbollah takeover
Nick Blanford
I'm in Ras al-Nabaa, scene of some of the fiercest fighting last night. The ground is covered in the debris of shattered car windscreens and residents are in a state of shock as they inspect the damage. One woman I just spoke to said that she was here throughout the civil war, from 1975 to 1990, and what happened last night was worse than any of that.
The fighting seems to have subsided now although you can still hear the occasional burst of machinegun fire. Hezbollah and their allied militia, Amal, took over almost all of West Beirut overnight and consolidated their position this morning. The Future Party fighters crumbled very quickly and if you drive around West Beirut now you see Hezbollah gunmen on street corners in jeans and T-shirts with AK47s and walkie talkies.
There are two main pro-government leaders who live in West Beirut, Saad Hariri and Walli Jumblatt, head of the Druze community. Both have large residences besieged by Hezbollah and Amal gunmen who are controlling access to their buildings.
I spoke to one of Mr Hariri's advisers, who is holed up in the same building, and he sounded very despondent. He called it a 'one-sided civil war'. They're trying to work out what happens next but it's unclear how the Government can survive this situation. Lebanon has definitely gone through a major change in the past 24 hours.
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