AP Photo BEI122
By HUSSEIN DAKROUB
Associated Press Writer
BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) - Lebanon remained tense Wednesday, a day after Hezbollah-led protesters who want to topple the U.S.-backed prime minister clashed with government supporters across the country.
Three people were killed and more than 170 wounded Tuesday as the two camps battled each other around street barricades with stone-throwing and in some cases gunfire.
The unrest died down after the opposition suspended the strike, saying it served as a warning to the government. The protesters, however, promised more action later if their demands were not met.
The opposition is growing increasingly frustrated after two months of sit-in protests outside Prime Minister Fuad Saniora's offices. The pro-Iranian group Hezbollah wants him to step down or form a new government giving his foes more power.
On Wednesday, Saniora left for France to attend an international donors conference aimed at raising billions of dollars in aid for rebuilding Lebanon. Many parts of southern Lebanon remain a wasteland of destruction and rubble five months after Hezbollah's war with Israel.
Tuesday's disturbances began after the Hezbollah-led opposition and labor unions called for a general strike that was rejected by the government, its political supporters and business leaders.
Opposition supporters took to the streets to enforce the strike by putting up barricades, mostly of burning car tires. Troops intervened and government supporters trying to reopen roads clashed with the opposition in some areas.
The action paralyzed Beirut and areas across Lebanon on Tuesday, and the atmosphere was still tense a day later as children went back to school and people returned to work.
Around the country, roads reopened but commuters enjoyed lighter traffic than usual as they drove by still-smoldering tires that street cleaners had pushed to the roadside.
International flights resumed, enabling the several hundred passengers stranded in the terminal to head to their destinations.
Police, in a final toll of the trouble, reported that three people were killed and 173 injured. Of the 173, 48 suffered gunshot wounds and the rest resulted from blows from sticks or stones.
Tuesday's clashes quickly took on a dangerous sectarian tone in a country whose divided communities fought a bloody 1975-1990 civil war. Gunmen from neighboring districts in the northern city of Tripoli - one largely Sunni Muslim, the other largely Alawites, a Shiite Muslim offshoot - fought each other, causing two of the fatalities.
The day gave a glimpse of how quickly the confrontation between Saniora's government and the Iranian-backed Hezbollah and its allies could spiral out of control, enflame tensions among Sunnis, Shiites and Christians and throw Lebanon into deeper turmoil.
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