Shells Rain on Beirut; 13 Die in ‘Night of Terror’

Warring Syrian and Christian forces battered Beirut with 50,000 shells and rockets overnight, killing 13 people in a random bombardment that one radio station called “a night of insane terror.”

The eight-hour barrage Thursday and Friday sparked fires that raged out of control and gutted scores of warehouses, shops and apartment buildings.

Orange flames blazed against the night sky as residents cowered in basements and bomb shelters.

Like an Earthquake

Almost every neighborhood in the divided capital and the Christian port city of Juniyah were hit “as if by a killer earthquake,” said a police spokesman. “It was Beirut’s night of horror and terror.”

He said 13 people were killed and 65 were wounded, raising the toll to 494 dead and 2,014 injured since the latest fighting erupted March 8 between Lebanese army commander Maj. Gen. Michel Aoun’s mainly Christian troops and an alliance of the Syrian army and Druze Muslim militias.

It was the heaviest shelling duel in the four-month confrontation “in terms of firepower used and destruction wreaked,” said the police spokesman.

Syrian gunners in West Beirut and northern Lebanon joined forces at 8 p.m. Thursday and started blasting Juniyah, East Beirut and the Christian port of Byblos, he said.

Aoun’s forces struck back at Syrian batteries with howitzers, but their allies from the Lebanese Forces militia fired an indiscriminate barrage at West Beirut. The shelling tapered off at 4 a.m.

People emerged from bunkers and jammed supermarkets, buying food and bottled water in anticipation of another bombardment.

“Is this apocalypse?” asked Hisham Sinno, a Sunni Muslim grocer whose shop was destroyed. “I’m destroyed. I have no source of income left.”

“Let them all roast in hell, those who are roasting Beirut!” said Albert Tawil, a Christian bank employee in East Beirut. “I wish one day I’ll drink their blood.”

Broken power cables dangled on streets littered with craters and glass shards. Hundreds of burned-out cars smoldered.

“A night of insane terror,” the Muslim-controlled Voice of the Nation radio said of the thunderous duel waged with multi-barreled launchers that fire 40 rockets a minute.

“We’re being killed in our beds. . . . Beirut is being massacred, and no one in the Arab world or the outside world seems to care,” said an announcer on Christian-run Voice of Lebanon, his voice choking with emotion.

One rocket devastated the top floor of the seven-story building housing offices of the Associated Press and the U.S. television networks CBS and NBC.

“The explosion blew me out of my bed. I found myself flat on the floor with glass shards showering me,” said AP correspondent Farouk Nassar, who lives on the sixth floor.

The blast shattered windows and hurled pieces of furniture down the street.

The U.N. headquarters in West Beirut and the Soviet Embassy compound also took direct hits, but police said no casualties were reported.

An electric tools warehouse in West Beirut burned from midnight to midday. Fire engines were unable to battle the fire because of a water shortage.

Another exodus followed the bombardment. Police estimated at least 100,000 residents fled Beirut on Thursday and Friday.

“What have children done to be butchered like that?” asked one of the refugees, Alia Shami, as she loaded the family car. Hundreds of vehicles formed convoys carrying frightened civilians to safer areas.