Lebanon launches major security operation
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A Lebanese woman walks past a armored personnel carrier stationed in a Sunni Muslim neighberhood in the capital Beirut on Oct 22, 2012. -- PHOTO: AFP
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A Lebanese Army soldier sits atop an armoured vehicle in a Sunni neighborhood after overnight clashes between Sunni and Shiite gunmen in Beirut, Lebanon, on Oct 22, 2012. -- PHOTO: AP
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Lebanese soldiers sit on their armored personnel carries as they monitor a Sunni Muslim neighberhood in the capital Beirut on Oct 22, 2012. -- PHOTO: AFP
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People look on as Lebanese soldiers move a garbage dumpster as they clear a roadblock in a Sunni Muslim neighberhood in the capital Beirut on Oct 22, 2012. -- PHOTO: AFP
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Smoke billows in Tripoli's Bab al Tabanneh neighbourhood during clashes with Alawites, an offshoot of Shiite Islam, in Jabal Mohsen area in northern Lebanon, on Oct 22, 2012. -- PHOTO: AFP
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Lebanese security forces reinforce barriers during clashes with protesters who were trying to storm the Lebanese government in Beirut on Oct 21, 2012. -- PHOTO: REUTERS
A Lebanese woman walks past a armored personnel carrier stationed in a Sunni Muslim neighberhood in the capital Beirut on Oct 22, 2012. -- PHOTO: AFP
A Lebanese Army soldier sits atop an armoured vehicle in a Sunni neighborhood after overnight clashes between Sunni and Shiite gunmen in Beirut, Lebanon, on Oct 22, 2012. -- PHOTO: AP
Lebanese soldiers sit on their armored personnel carries as they monitor a Sunni Muslim neighberhood in the capital Beirut on Oct 22, 2012. -- PHOTO: AFP
People look on as Lebanese soldiers move a garbage dumpster as they clear a roadblock in a Sunni Muslim neighberhood in the capital Beirut on Oct 22, 2012. -- PHOTO: AFP
Smoke billows in Tripoli's Bab al Tabanneh neighbourhood during clashes with Alawites, an offshoot of Shiite Islam, in Jabal Mohsen area in northern Lebanon, on Oct 22, 2012. -- PHOTO: AFP
Lebanese security forces reinforce barriers during clashes with protesters who were trying to storm the Lebanese government in Beirut on Oct 21, 2012. -- PHOTO: REUTERS
BEIRUT (AP) - Lebanese troops launched a major security operation on Monday to open all roads and force gunmen off the streets, trying to contain an outburst of violence set off by the assassination of a top intelligence official who was a powerful opponent of Syria. Sectarian clashes overnight killed at least two people.
Opponents of Syria have blamed the regime in Damascus for the killing of Lebanese Brigadier-General Wissam Al-Hassan in a Beirut car bomb on Friday. With Lebanon already tense and deeply divided over the civil war next door, the assassination has threatened to drag the country back into the kind of sectarian strife that plagued it for decades - much of it linked to Syria.
Sporadic cracks of gunfire rang out in Beirut as soldiers backed by armoured personal carriers with heavy machine guns took up position on major thoroughfares and dismantled roadblocks. At times, troops exchanged gunfire with Sunni gunmen.
Mr Al-Hassan was a Sunni who challenged Syria and its powerful Lebanese ally, the Shiite militant group Hezbollah. The uprising in Syria is dominated by the Sunni majority fighting Syrian President Bashar Assad, who like many who dominate his regime, is a member of the Alawite sect - an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam. Lebanon and Syria share similar sectarian divides that have fed tensions in both countries, increasingly.
