2013-06-25 14:08:09

Lebanon: fears of descent into civil war as Syria fighting continues


(Vatican Radio) The Syrian conflict continues to make itself felt in Lebanon. Gun battles involving the Lebanese army and Sunni Muslim radical groups in the southern port of Sidon erupted early this week after Lebanese soldiers stormed a complex holding fighter loyal to a radical Islamist cleric, killing more than 20 people and arresting dozens of the cleric’s supporters. The cleric, Ahmed al-Assir, remains at large. Violence also spread to the city of Tripoli in the north.

Lebanese citizens are concerned that the ongoing clashes could drag their country back into civil war. Fr. Khalil Samir Khalil, SJ of St Joseph’s University in the Lebanese capital, Beirut, told Vatican Radio that the situation is a complex weave of politics and religion. “The conflict is becoming a religious one within Islam,” between Sunnis who constitute an absolute majority within the Muslim world and Shi’a minority groups, including the Alawite group to which Syria’s embattled leader, Bashar al-Assad, belongs. Listen to Chris Altieri's extended conversation with Fr Samir K.Samir, SJ: RealAudioMP3

The powerful Lebanese Shi’ite paramilitary group Hezbollah is engaged in Syria and allied with Iran – which is a major provider of funding and weapons to Hezbollah by way of Syria – and now Sunni militia groups have begun to arm as well. In Beirut, militia loyal to both sides blocked roads, while local media report that some hardline Sunni mosques in Tripoli and Beirut called for jihad, or holy war, in support of the Sunni cleric, Assir, whose mosque complex government forces stormed at the weekend.







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