The New York Times :
Lebanon observed a day of mourning on Friday, a day after lethal gun battles between Christian and Shiite Muslim militias erupted in the capital in a faint but dangerous echo of the 15-year civil war that devastated the country.
With schools and businesses closed, the streets of Beirut were hushed, the city preparing for funerals later on Friday. Residents stayed inside, monitoring news reports tense with speculation: Would the prime minister resign? Would the violence spiral into a more sustained conflict, as sectarian clashes are prone to doing in deeply divided Lebanon?
On Friday morning, the country – already in the grip of an economic meltdown compounded by political paralysis and last year’s huge explosion in the Beirut port – seemed to have kept further violence at bay, at least for now. There were no reports of renewed clashes.
But among Lebanese, it was hard to escape the fear, frustration and misery.
“If things continue this way, they are heading to the destruction of the country,” he said.
The adjoining neighborhoods where the gun battles broke out for about four hours on Thursda.
, Tayouneh and Badaro, were on the front line of the civil war, when Beirut was divided as Christian militias in east Beirut battled Muslim ones in west Beirut, making it one of the most volatile areas in the city.
On television, commentators affiliated with various political parties and sects were emphatic that they did not want to return to civil war, and leading politicians called for calm after some of the worst violence in years.
“We see today the same factors that led to the Lebanese war,” Samy Gemayel, the president of the Lebanese Kataeb party, a Christian faction, said on Lebanon’s MTV channel. “If things continue this way, they are heading to the destruction of the country,” he said.
