Sectarian Fighting in 7th Day in Beirut

Christian and Muslim militiamen, entrenched behind newly erected earth barricades, traded sniper fire and hurled grenades Saturday on the seventh day of sectarian fighting in the Lebanese capital.

The thud of exploding rocket-propelled grenades and mortar rounds mingled with the crackle of rifle fire throughout the day, after fierce overnight tank and mortar exchanges left four civilians dead and 37 wounded, including three Lebanese soldiers in the nearby mountain town of Souq el Gharb.

Meanwhile, hundreds of Christians who fled Muslim forces as they stormed Christian villages east of Sidon last week arrived in Juniyah early Saturday aboard refugee ships that brought them there from the Israeli port of Haifa. The Christians fled southern Lebanon through Israeli lines.

In Beirut, skirmishes forced the closing of most of the crossing points between the city’s Christian and Muslim sectors. Earthen mounds up to 12 feet high were erected along the so-called Green Line separating East and West Beirut. Rival militia allowed the reopening of the Museum Crossing, permitting scores of civilians to cross from east to west, many for the first time in a week, but sniping later in the day reportedly forced its closing.

Lebanon’s leaders stayed in contact by telephone in an effort to halt the hostilities. Newspapers reported that President Amin Gemayel, a Christian, and Premier Rashid Karami, a Muslim, agreed Friday night to “launch a war on the war.”

The reports, however, did not say what the leaders planned to do to restore stability to Lebanon, which has been ravaged by more than a decade of sectarian strife.

Christian and Muslim Cabinet ministers also are split over the Muslim seizure of a coastal belt of Christian villages near Sidon, forcing tens of thousands of Christians to flee from their homes.

As evening fell in Beirut on Saturday, tracers were fired across the city, and several clashes broke out between Christian and Muslim militiamen on the southern end of the Green Line--a string of littered streets and bombed-out buildings separating the fighters.