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The violence spiralled after an Amal activist was shot dead when the army moved to break up a protest over power cuts. -- PHOTO: AFP
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BEIRUT - EIGHT Lebanese opposition supporters were shot dead in Beirut on Sunday in some of the worst street violence since Lebanon's 1975-90 civil war, raising tensions in a country gripped by political conflict.
A senior opposition source said all the dead were members of Hizbollah or Amal - Shi'ite Muslim groups that have been locked in a power struggle with the anti-Damascus governing coalition for more than a year. At least 29 more people were wounded.
The violence spiralled after an Amal activist was shot dead when the army moved to break up a protest over power cuts.
Seen as neutral in the political crisis, the army had fired in the air to disperse the protest. It said it was investigating who was behind the initial shooting.
Prime Minister Fouad Siniora urged calm and declared Monday a day of mourning. Schools and universities were to be closed.
'In these momements, our country is passing through its most difficult and dangerous times,' he said in a statement. 'What we have built during the past years is in danger of crumbling.'
Gunfire was heard into the night in Beirut, and the streets were deserted. Gunmen were seen in Shi'ite and Christian areas near the scene of the shooting in Mar Makhaeil.
In nearby Ain Roummaneh, the site of a massacre that had triggered Lebanon's civil war, a hand grenade wounded seven people, security sources said. Cars there were set ablaze.
The rivals have sought to contain violence since those clashes. But tensions are still high between Sunni Muslim followers of governing coalition leader Saad al-Hariri and Shi'ites loyal to the opposition. -- REUTERS
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