Battles Erupt in Beirut as Militia Units Defy Syrian Peacekeepers

At least one person was killed and six were wounded Monday as Syrian troops exchanged fire with defiant Muslim militiamen in the first serious challenges to Syria’s 4,000-man peacekeeping force.

The Syrians rolled into West Beirut on Sunday to quell fighting between rival Muslim factions in the Lebanese capital.

A Syrian soldier shot and killed an unidentified militiaman in the Raouche neighborhood, police said, adding that 15 Druze militiamen were arrested in the first few hours of the Syrian cleanup.

Later in the day, three Syrians and three Druze militiamen were wounded in a 15-minute gun battle in the Druze-controlled Ein el Mreisse district, according to police and Syrian communiques.

There was no immediate word of what triggered the shoot-out, but witnesses said that Druze and Shia Muslim militiamen tried to fool the heavily armed Syrian patrols, which have orders to shoot gunmen on sight, by shedding combat fatigues for civilian clothes.

Buildings Raided

Police also said that Syrian troops raided apartment buildings in West Beirut and arrested several gunmen from both camps, reportedly triggering a series of kidnapings and counterkidnapings by militiamen.

Machine-gun fire and the blasts of rocket-propelled grenades were heard in the western sector after nightfall, but it was not clear who was doing the shooting.

“The incidents that happened today, including kidnaping and counterkidnapings, are nothing but exploitation by troublemakers,” said Brig. Gen. Ghazi Kanaan, head of Syrian army intelligence in Lebanon.

“Not a single militia office or gunman will be active,” he vowed.

Kanaan said later that the Syrian force will take over militia offices at dawn today after the complete evacuation of the militiamen. He said that militia positions on the Green Line dividing the Muslim west from the Christian eastern section of the city will be handed over to the Lebanese army.

Syria last tried to impose order on West Beirut last July but soon abandoned the effort. Sunday’s deployment came at the request of Lebanon’s leading Sunni Muslim politicians, Premier Rashid Karami and Education Minister Salim Hoss, after a week of street fighting in which 300 people were killed and more than 1,300 wounded.

Rival Factions

The fighting matched the Druze, an offshoot Muslim sect under the banner of the Progressive Socialist Party and its allies in the tiny Lebanese Communist Party against Amal, the largest Shia Muslim militia group.

Kanaan earlier said his men would “have no mercy”’ in stopping the factional war and were told to “shoot to kill any violator on sight. Lawlessness will not be tolerated any more.”

Kanaan asked the population to cooperate with his men, who “came to defend you and safeguard your security, property and dignity.”

Syrian President Hafez Assad has been involved in attempts to end the Lebanese civil war since it began nearly 12 years ago.

Syria is the Soviet Union’s principal Middle East ally and the main power broker in Lebanon. This is Syria’s first major troop deployment in Beirut since it evacuated the city during the 1982 Israeli invasion.

Syrian units Monday set up checkpoints near the Palestinian refugee camps of Chatilla and Borj el Brajne, which have been under siege by the Amal militia for three months.