CLASHES BETWEEN FACTIONS ERUPTING IN BEIRUT

*******UPDATE #2: MATSAV HAS VIDEO AND MORE LINKS...

*******UPDATED: GULF NEWS:

Scores of Lebanese soldiers have deployed in Beirut to end sectarian riots that left at least 14 people injured and several cars and properties vandalised.

Security sources said that followers of Saad Al Hariri on Saturday clashed with supporters of Hezbollah, using knives, sticks and stones.

AP/IHT:

BEIRUT, Lebanon: Lebanese army troops intervened to restore order as pro-government and opposition supporters engaged in fist fights and beat each other with sticks in a Muslim neighborhood of Beirut late Saturday, police and TV stations reported.

Gunfire was heard in the melee but it was not clear who fired and there was no immediate word on casualties.

State-run National News Agency reported trouble in four neighborhoods but gave no details. Such clashes have become common in recent weeks as tensions escalate between rival Lebanese camps and the country's 15-month-old political crisis deepens.

AFP:

Lebanese television reported that several shops were set ablaze, while the security official said one house was burned down and a car was set on fire by Molotov cocktails thrown by the militants.

Similar clashes in recent days between supporters of the Western-backed government and the Shiite-led opposition have raised tensions in a country already embroiled in its worst political crisis since the 1975-1990 civil war.

The security official had said the fighting involved supporters of ruling majority leader Saad Hariri and rivals in the opposition Shiite movement Amal.

But an Amal spokesman told AFP: "Amal denies that any of its supporters were involved in the violence tonight."

Tensions have been running high in Lebanon as the country grapples with a protracted political crisis that has left it without a head of state since the end of November.

On Thursday, mass rallies were staged by rival pro- and anti-Syrian factions in Beirut, further ratcheting up the tensions.

Perhaps this is the beginning of another civil war...

• AS I PREDICTED.
  
• HIZBALLAH/SYRIA/IRAN WANT CHAOS THERE.
• AND SOON THEY WILL HAVE IT.
• IT WON'T END UNTIL NASRALLAH, ASSAD AND THE MULLAHS ARE GONE FROM THE SCENE - PERMANENTLY.