Fears of new Lebanon civil war are mounting. Fighting intensified in Lebanon streets after Hezbollah said the government's actions were "tantamount to a declaration of war".

Fears of new civil war mount - 09 / 05 / 2008 06:45

Eight people have been killed and 15 people wounded in Lebanon, according to security sources, as the country's political crisis threatens to spiral out of control.

Fighting in Beirut intensified on Thursday, the second day of anti-government protests, after a speech by Hassan Nasrallah, the Hezbollah leader, in which he called a government crackdown on the Shia group "tantamount to a declaration of war".

Government offer rejected Saad al-Hariri, the governing coalition leader, proposed a deal on Thursday to end the crisis under which the government decisions that have infuriated Hezbollah would be considered a "misunderstanding" and be referred to the Lebanese army.

The move will give General Michel Suleiman, the commander of the army - which has been neutral in the confrontation so far - the option to suspend the implementation of the government decisions. But Hezbollah's al-Manar TV quoted an opposition source rejecting any ideas for ending the conflict other than Nasrallah's demand that the measures be rescinded.

In several neighbourhoods across the capital automatic rifle fire could be heard as fighters in support of Hezbollah and the allied Amal group exchanged fire with pro-government fighters in the worst domestic fighting since the 1975-90 civil war.

Clashes were reported to have broken out in other parts of the country, with another seven people reported injured in the Beqaa valley. The Lebanese army did not participate in the fighting.

 But Robert Fisk, a journalist in Beirut said that could change if the fighting escalated. "If we have a situation where one group of people move into another group's area - either Shia or Sunni - then the army may have to take much harsher measures and that immediately raises the question of 'what is the future of the Lebanese army', because it's made up of all the citizens of this country, not just one group or the other," Fisk said.

"The fighting seems to be spreading," reported James Bays, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Beirut. "It's something all the political parties said they wanted to avoid." Thursday's fighting occurred on Corniche Mazraa, a major thoroughfare in Beirut that has become a demarcation line between mainly Sunni and Shia neighbourhoods, and the nearby Ras el-Nabeh area.

Al Jazeera