Hezbollah gunmen seized control of west Beirut on Friday after a third day of battles with pro-government foes in the Lebanese capital pushed the nation dangerously close to all-out civil war.
The sectarian fighting had eased by early afternoon as the army and police moved across areas now in the hands of Shiite opposition forces who routed Sunni militants loyal to the Western-backed government.
"There are no clashes anymore because no one is standing in the way of the opposition forces," a security official said on condition of anonymity.
The rattle of gunfire and the thump of exploding rocket-propelled grenades rang out across mainly Muslim west Beirut during much of the morning as Sunni government loyalists fought street battles with Shiite gunmen.
At least 11 people have been killed and dozens wounded in the fighting that erupted on Thursday after Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah said a government crackdown on his Iranian- and Syrian-backed group was a declaration of war.
The unrest triggered urgent international appeals for calm amid fears that the protracted political feud could plunge the divided multi-confessional nation back to the dark days of the 1975-1990 civil war.
Beirut residents were fleeing for shelter elsewhere as tanks rolled through the streets and hundreds of riot police and troops patrolled the city, but did not get involved in the fighting."
Yawn.
Moslems killing one another.
Could be worse.
They COULD be harming innocent, civilized people.
Fittingly somehow, the 1000th post of 2008.
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