Dissident Shia Militia Leader Is Killed in West Beirut

A dissident leader of a Shia Muslim militia was killed Saturday night, hours after Lebanon’s Sunni Muslims called for an end to the fierce inter-Muslim fighting that rocked West Beirut last week.

Security sources said Ali Ayoub, who had been expelled from the Amal militia for lack of discipline, was killed in a clash with unidentified gunmen in West Beirut.

Militiamen of Amal’s Druze ally, the Progressive Socialist Party, took to the streets and set up roadblocks.

On Tuesday, the Druze--an offshoot sect of Islam--fought alongside Shia militiamen to supress the Sunni Muslim militia, Murabitoun. The battle, lasting 15 hours, was the worst in the capital in a year.

Ayoub’s killing came after Sunni religious and political leaders met to denounce the fighting and appeal for Muslim unity.

Caretaker Premier Rashid Karami, himself a Sunni who resigned in protest over the street battles, told the meeting that Syria had pledged to take steps “to ensure the safety and security of Beirut and dignity of its people.”

A statement issued after the meeting said Karami had told Syrian President Hafez Assad and Vice President Abdel-Halim Khaddam of “practices and acts which would not be accepted” during two days of talks in Damascus that ended Friday.

The Syrian leaders, who have frequently mediated in Lebanon’s factional disputes, were ready to “correct the situation,” Karami said without giving details.

Karami wants the army and police to take full control over West Beirut. They have failed to do that despite several short-lived Syrian-backed attempts to enforce state authority.

The Sunni leaders, including a minister in Karami’s Cabinet, two former premiers and the Sunnis’ spiritual leader, Sheik Hassan Khaled, “were keen to rise above wounds” to maintain Muslim unity, the government said.

Christian President Amin Gemayel told Khaled by telephone that he would do what he could to help “deal with the recent developments to ensure security and peace,” the national news agency reported.

In the southern port city of Sidon, two people were killed and 11 wounded in heavy fighting between Christian militiamen positioned in the hilly eastern suburbs pitted against army troops and Muslim fighters.

Nazih Bizri, a member of Parliament from Sidon, has appealed to Syrian and other Arab leaders to help end the monthlong fighting in which 110 people have been killed.

In Tel Aviv, the Israeli army reported that two Israeli soldiers were wounded in occupied southern Lebanon on Saturday when a bomb exploded beside the road as their convoy passed near Rachaiya, east of Marjayoun.

The men were evacuated to a hospital in Israel, the army said. A force composed largely of Shia Muslims is waging a guerrilla campaign against Israeli occupation forces, but it was not immediately known who was responsible.