Christian Militia Crushes Rivals in East Beirut

Christian militia hard-liners crushed a comeback attempt by an ousted pro-Syrian commander Sunday in 24 hours of street battles in Christian East Beirut. Police said 62 people were killed and 198 wounded.

Fighting began at dawn Saturday when about 600 supporters of Elie Hobeika, former commander of the Lebanese Forces Christian militia, stormed across Beirut’s dividing Green Line from the Muslim western sector.

“The last pocket of resistance was mopped up at daybreak, when 12 infiltrators from Elie Hobeika’s supporters surrendered,” said a communique issued Sunday by the Lebanese Forces, the nation’s largest Christian militia.

Police confirmed that loyalists of Lebanese Forces commander Samir Geagea defeated the pro-Hobeika attackers.

There was no word on the whereabouts of Hobeika, who was ousted from the command of the Lebanese Forces by Geagea’s hard-liners Jan. 15 for signing a Syrian-sponsored peace pact with Muslim militia leaders. President Amin Gemayel, himself a Maronite Catholic, was among the Christians who thought that the accord’s power-sharing provisions conceded too much to the Muslims.

The collapse of Hobeika’s thrust consolidated Geagea’s position as the strongman of Lebanon’s 1.8 million Christians.

Pro-Geagea militiamen in armored personnel carriers and jeeps mounted with recoilless rifles on Sunday patrolled residential districts where street fighting raged all day Saturday in East Beirut.

Hundreds of residents trapped in basements and bomb shelters by the fighting cautiously ventured out Sunday to take stock of the losses, which police estimated at about $10 million.

The Lebanese army stepped in Saturday to help beat back pro-Hobeika attackers. The army regulars then took over Geagea’s Green Line positions in an effort to avert full-scale civil war after Hobeika’s defeat.

Three of the soldiers were killed and five wounded, police said. Hobeika supporters lost 25 killed and 42 wounded and Geagea’s militia 27 killed and 56 wounded.

Seven other people were killed and 95 wounded in shelling duels.

Mortar fire persisted Sunday, but no new casualties were reported.