Supporters of Lebanon's US-backed government fought gun battles in Beirut yesterday with gunmen loyal to the Hezbollah-led opposition, escalating the country's worst internal crisis since the 1975-90 civil war.

The clashes took place a day after the government accused Hezbollah of violating the country's sovereignty by operating its own telecommunications network and installing spy cameras at Beirut airport.

Air traffic was suspended yesterday because of a strike by staff taking part in labor union action to demand more pay.

The strike was backed by the Hezbollah-led opposition, whose struggle with Prime Minister Fouad Siniora's anti-Syrian cabinet has already led to bouts of lethal street violence.

The army, which has been seen as mostly neutral through the crisis, fired into the air to keep them apart. But it did not attempt to remove road barricades.

Government minister Marwan Hamadeh said Hezbollah, a Shi'ite Muslim political group with a powerful guerrilla army and Syrian and Iranian backing, was "trying to use military means to block the airport".

Tension between the government and Hezbollah escalated sharply on Tuesday when the Cabinet said the group's communication network was "an attack on the sovereignty of the state".

Hezbollah said the network was part of its security apparatus and had played a major role in its war with Israel in 2006.

Hezbollah was the only Lebanese faction allowed to keep its weapons after the civil war to fight Israeli forces occupying the south.

Israel withdrew in 2000 and the fate of Hezbollah's weapons is at the heart of the political crisis.

A UN Security Council resolution that ended the 2006 war between Hezbollah and Israel bans the group from rearming and rebuilding its military infrastructure in south Lebanon.

Eight members of the anti-Syrian coalition have been assassinated since 2005.

Hezbollah has deemed Siniora's cabinet illegitimate since its Shi'ite ministers resigned in 2006.

The governing coalition has refused to yield to the opposition's demand for effective veto power in cabinet. The crisis has paralyzed much of government and left Lebanon without a president for five months.

Agencies

(China Daily 05/08/2008 page10)