Rivals trade gunfire in Beirut; 1 dead

Automatic-rifle fire and three explosions were heard in the brief gun battle that underlined the continued sectarian tensions despite recent pledges by political leaders to work together. Those pledges followed a bruising election campaign.

Hours earlier, the Western-backed billionaire who is set to become the country’s next prime minister, Saad Hariri, was holding talks with his predecessors as part of the delicate process of forming a government that can unify the deeply divided country.

Lebanese troops cordoned off the Aisha Bakkar neighborhood in the capital’s Muslim sector and deployed in force to restore calm yesterday evening, security officials said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media. They said the dead victim was a woman shot outside her home.

The fighting was between supporters of Hariri, a Sunni who leads the parliamentary majority, and followers of Nabih Berri, the speaker whose Shi’ite party is aligned with Hezbollah.

In May 2008, heavy clashes erupted between the same factions. Hezbollah along with Berri’s Amal movement later swept through Sunni neighborhoods to briefly seize control. An agreement that called for a unity government and the June 7 parliamentary elections restored peace for about a year.

Hariri was named Saturday by Lebanon’s president to become the next prime minister after his pro-Western coalition defeated a Hezbollah-backed alliance in the election. All major factions have since pledged to turn a new page.

The gunfight is not expected to derail the reconciliation efforts, but it showed once again how tensions could quickly spill over onto the streets. It was not clear what sparked the gunfight, but tension has built up in that neighborhood since Saturday’s celebrations by Hariri’s backers.