The World - News from July 10, 1989

Syrian troops quelled fighting between rival Shiite Muslim militias in Beirut’s southern suburbs in which at least six people were killed and nine wounded. Witnesses said 300 troops separated fighters of the pro-Syrian Amal and the Iranian-backed Hezbollah (Party of God) and that only sniper fire could be heard from the poverty-stricken suburbs. Among those trapped for hours by the fighting, which breached a truce sponsored by Iran and Syria, were thousands of sunbathers on southern beaches. In another action, a Syrian naval force blockading Christian ports seized a Lebanese yacht and apparently took six passengers into custody, military sources said.