One killed in sectarian clashes in Beirut

Violent clashes broke out Sunday between Shiite and Sunni Muslims in Beirut, leaving one man dead from gunshot wounds and at least four injured, a local television reported.

According to the report, Shiite supporters from the southern suburbs trying to infiltrate into Tarik Jedideh, a low-income Sunni quarter, clashed with pro-government supporters.

The two sides threw stones at each other and then opened fire each other, killing Ahmed Ali Mahmoud, a 20-year-old Shiite, it added.

Local Naharnet news website reported that the two separate clashes occurred Sunday in the densely-populated Tarik Jedideh neighborhood and on the Badaro-Qasqas highway.

The Lebanese army used teargas bombs to control the "security problem", said Naharnet, adding that it also threw a security dragnet in Tarik Jedideh in an effort to prevent followers of the pro-Syrian Hezbollah and Amal movement from stirring trouble in the Sunni neighborhood.

Shortly after the clashes, Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Seniora asked the Lebanese army to take all necessary actions against any attempt to destabilize security without hesitation.

Lebanon's opposition supporters has been staging a mass protest for the third day. The open-ended rally aims to bring down the Seniora government, which was deserted by six pro-Syrian ministers last month amid accusations of corruption and impotence after the July-August war with Israel.

Source: Xinhua