Syrians, Shia Militia Clash After Blast : Car Bomb Explosion Starts Beirut Battle; 5 Dead, 30 Wounded

A car bomb exploded near a Syrian army checkpoint in South Beirut today, touching off a gun battle between Syrian troops and pro-Iranian fundamentalist militiamen, police said.

They said at least five people were killed and 30 wounded in the mid-afternoon blast and ensuing shoot-out in South Beirut’s seaside Ouzai district. It was the third car-bombing in Lebanon this year.

“Casualties with limbs ripped off by the force of the blast lay everywhere in pools of blood,” one witness said.

Among the injured were two Syrian soldiers and two Lebanese policemen manning a joint checkpoint on the Ouzai highway, police said.

The site of the blast was about 300 yards from an office of the Iranian-backed Hezbollah, or Party of God, the most radical Shia Muslim group in Lebanon.

A carload of bearded Hezbollah gunmen raced to the scene. But Syrian soldiers and Lebanese policemen ringing the blast site intercepted the car and ordered its occupants out, police said.

‘Tried to Haul Them Out’

“When the gunmen refused to step out, troops and policemen tried to haul them out by force. One gunman fired his pistol and a shoot-out erupted in which two gunmen were killed and a civilian passer-by was wounded,” a police spokesman said. He cannot be identified by name under standing regulations.

One of the dead gunmen was identified as Abu Ali Assaf, a Hezbollah official.

Reporters and photographers, watching from a distance, saw troops and policemen beating the gunmen with rifle butts through the car’s open windows before the shooting began.

One gunman was seen drawing a pistol and firing at the soldiers and police, who opened up with submachine guns. Panicky onlookers sprinted away.

Syria deployed an estimated 2,400 troops in Beirut’s southern slums two weeks ago to quell three weeks of savage fighting between Hezbollah and the pro-Syrian Shia Amal militia.

Police had said 296 people were killed and 1,000 wounded in the war for control of the slums, where most of the 18 foreigners kidnaped in Lebanon are believed held.

5 Shops Damaged

After the bomb-laden brown Datsun blew up at 4:05 p.m., ambulances were seen racing to and from the blast scene and fire engines doused at least two burning cars with water hoses.

Syrian troops and policemen quickly removed debris from the area, where five shops were damaged.

Today’s car-bombing came eight days after a car bomb exploded in Christian East Beirut’s Rmaile residential neighborhood, killing 20 people and wounding 78.

On April 23, a car bomb blew up in a crowded vegetable market in the predominantly Sunni Muslim port city of Tripoli, killing 69 people and wounding 111.