Crisis in Lebanon!

I know, I know, the headline is very CNN-esq, but work with me here people, I just got off a nine hour shift of loading heavy equipment into giant trucks and I’m tired.

So during my half-hour break at work this morning at 3:30 am I decide to go to Starbucks (the only place open 24 hours that’s near by) and I pick up the New York Times and see this as their front page picture:

Ummmm….Holy FUCK!

What the fuck happened? I started thinking to myself. Wasn’t there just a general strike yesterday? HOW DID THIS COME ABOUT???!!!

Which also made me think of Sursock, Farfahinne and MarxistFromLebanon. Quickly though, some reports from mainstream news organizations.

From the Times article:

Fierce clashes escalated in Beirut on Thursday between Sunni supporters of the government and loyalists of Hezbollah, the Shiite militant group, after Hezbollah’s leader said the government had declared war by threatening to shut down the group’s private telephone network

Minutes after Mr. Nasrallah’s speech, armed men in mixed Sunni-Shiite neighborhoods on the west side of Beirut engaged in heavy fighting using automatic rifles and rocket-propelled grenades. The army raced in armored personal carriers from one neighborhood to another, with soldiers shooting in the air to try to stop the fighting.

By late Thursday masked gunmen were roaming the streets with walkie-talkies. Some were seen shooting out streetlights to keep rooftop snipers from directing their fire at targets.

Many residents along Corniche Mazraa, a major highway that has become a demarcation line between the factions, were seen leaving their houses for safer areas. Others lined up in supermarkets, stocking up on food supplies.

The Guardian (U.K.) has a short video on the situation and this article:

Hizbullah gunmen today took control of west Beirut in street battles that left 11 people dead and forced government supporters into hiding

The Daily Star (Lebanon) reports:

Hizbullah secretary general Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said during a press conference Thursday that Lebanon has entered a new phase of its political crisis and warned that a government crackdown on his party was tantamount to a “declaration of war.” Nasrallah stressed that Hizbullah was ready to return to dialogue, linking talks to a government back-track regarding measures taken Tuesday.

…

“The communications network is a significant part of the weapons of the resistance,” Nasrallah declared. “I had said that we will cut the hand that targets the weapons of the resistance … Today is the day to fulfill this decision.”

The cleric also stressed that Hizbullah is ready to use its weapons to defend itself should the government “cartel” seek to impinge upon the rights of the resistance.

“We have the right to confront he who starts a war with us by defending our rights and our weapons. We have yet to use our weapons inside the country but will do so to protect our arsenal,” he added.

“The [government] decision is tantamount to a declaration of war. This [signals] the start of a war … on behalf of the United States and Israel,” Nasrallah said during the conference, which was held via video link.

Nasrallah also escalated his rhetoric against a key March 14 stalwart Progressive Socialist Party leader and MP Walid Jumblatt, with whom the opposition has been trading jabs over the airport controversy and the communications debate.

Now, onto the ground.

MarxistFromLebanon was reporting

Well, after General Secretary of Hezbollah Hassan Nasrallah spoke, heavy shooting began between AMAL/Hezbollah and Future Movement extensively. Shooting took place everywhere, in my street alone guns were shot. The neighboring street, 4 masked gunners came out and are still there. A lot of my friends reported that snipers stood up on their rooftops. Rockets were reported, and everywhere these parties are presents, a gigantic shoot-out.

It seems interesting that so far there have only been 11 reported deaths, especially reading MFL’s first hand accounts of shooting going off everywhere. Is the media getting it wrong?

MFL continues:

This is a full scale war in Beirut. What we are witnessing now is the rising borders of the militia cantons. Those who successfully maintain control over their streets, then they draw their new “national borders of their mini-republics”. Now of course, with the presence of the cantons, it will be like a big chess board whereby one color signifies the government and the other would be the opposition. Reports of different opposing media accuse the other parties of performing “Sectarian Cleansing” whereby each majority would kick the minority. The site of refugees in Ras el Naba’a and Corniche el Mazra’a was repulsive, all political parties should pay them compensation. Now what to expect from militias when their universities students are using ak-47s?

Fafahinne writes (in Arabic, excuse the crappy translation)

1) What is most shocking in his [Nasrallah's] statements is his call for compromise and dialogue with all of the parties and with Condoleezza Rice. I felt his speech, despite the escalation phenomenon: the “spare hand that extends to the arms of the resistance,” an indirect call to return to the table of dialogue with these parties. This is what we have to take a decisive stand on: no dialogue with a puppet government … yes to the toppling Siniora.

…

2) In his speech he didn’t even mention the sensitive issue of the difficult economic situation and he also omitted the topic of the raising of the minimum wage, which was called for by the General Labor Union…And, hence, limited the conflict with the question of disarmament and bumped out the economic situation and economic policy of Altaher Sinoiora’s government.

أكثر ما يصدمني في تصريحه هو إتهامه بالعمالة لأطراف الحكومة “موظفي كونداليزا رايس” من جهة ودعوته للمساومة والحوار مع هذه الأطراف من جهة أخرى. فلمست بخطابه، على الرغم من ظاهره التصعيدي : “سنقطع اليد التي تمتد الى سلاح المقاومة”، دعوة غير مباشرة إلى العودة الى طاولة الحوار مع هذه الأطراف. وهذا ما علينا ان نأخذ منه موقفا حاسمًا: لا حوار مع حكومة عميلة…نعم لإسقاط حكومة السنيورة

…

في كلمته لم يذكر حتى الوضع الإقتصادي الصعب الذي يفتك بالفئات الأكثر حساسية وأغفل أيضا موضوع رفع الحد الأدنى للأجور الذي دعا الإتحاد العمالي العام ودعت “المعارضة” لإضراب من أجله يوم البارحة. وبالتالي فهو حصر الصراع مع السلطة في مسألة السلاح وأخرج الوضع الإقتصادي وسياسة التعهير

الإقتصادية التي تنتهجها حكومة السنيورة من الصراع

Sursock blogs:

The word on everyones lips is “fitna” — a schism between Sunni and Shia Muslims. At the moment this struggle is political — between the US backed government and opposition, who are supporters of the resistance.

Opposition gunmen, many of them masked, are roaming around the Hamra area of west Beirut.

****

A friend in Ain el Mreisseh (near to the old hotel district) said that Amal fighters from the opposition took over her neighbourhood “pretty quickly this afternoon”.

…

Thursday turned into a bad day for the government. The opposition forces overan Future TV and Al-Mustaqbal offices in west Beirut. Both are the media mouthpieces of Saad Hariri.

It seems that the pro government fighters (private security forces) walked away from the battle.

Rumours that Walid Jumblat, a key government ally, abandoned his house in the upmarket quarter of Clemenceau proved unfounded. But the threat against his residence seems to have triggered clashes just south of the capital.

I will update you guys more on the situation going on over there some time tomorrow. I’ll try to find more blogs fro m Lebanon (I know of a few more) plus some more news when it happens. Please check out Farfahinne’ Twitter for more updates and all those blogs and newspapers I mentioned, and of course Al Jazeera and Al Jazeera English. Special thanks to Moussa Bashir from Global Voices.