Muslim Militia, Army Clash at Beirut Green Line

Muslim militia and army units traded machine-gun and rocket-propelled grenade fire Sunday in the heaviest clashes for months on the line dividing the Lebanese capital.

No casualties were reported in the fighting on the six-mile-long no man’s land known as the Green Line, which divides Christian East Beirut from the largely Muslim western sector. The firing began at midnight and continued sporadically until dawn.

Army units were deployed between rival Christian and Muslim militias under a security plan put into effect last July, and that arrangement has halted prolonged fighting along the line.

Christian and Muslim militiamen have fortified positions along the Green Line since Samir Geagea, a pro-Israeli leader of the Lebanese Forces, the main Christian militia, announced a revolt against Gemayel on March 12 over Gemayel’s year-old alliance with Syria.

Meanwhile, Sheik Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, regarded by many people as the spiritual leader of the radical Shia group Hezbollah (Party of God), was quoted as saying, “As a principle, I reject kidnaping regardless of the person kidnaped.”

Fadlallah’s statement followed the kidnapings of a number of foreigners in West Beirut in recent weeks. A Shia group calling itself Islamic Jihad (Islamic Holy War) has claimed responsibility.