25 Killed as Shiite Rivals Renew Battles

Syrian and Iranian efforts failed Sunday to curb a new wave of violence that erupted between two rival Muslim Shiite Lebanese groups, killing at least 25 people and wounding 100 others, security sources said.

Sources said fierce battles between the Syrian-backed Amal militia and the Iranian-supported Hezbollah, or Party of God, broke out anew Sunday morning in the south after a short lull that followed a cease-fire announced by Hezbollah late Saturday.

Militia officials said Deputy Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammed Ali Besharati, who had been in Damascus, arrived by land Sunday in Lebanon and immediately met with Hezbollah leaders to discuss a Syrian-backed cease-fire call.

Besharati had already spoken by telephone with Amal chief Nabih Berri, reports said.

The fundamentalist Hezbollah had said in a statement that its fighters would observe a cease-fire to “give chance for a dialogue” between the two Shiite groups.

Battles between the rivals struggling for control of the Shiite sect in Lebanon broke out at dawn Saturday in the Tufah region east of the port city of Sidon, 24 miles south of Beirut.

Security sources said the fighting resumed early Sunday as both groups exchanged fire with rockets and heavy machine guns.

The Tufah region is a string of about 18 villages that runs from east of Sidon to the western part of the Bekaa Valley, east of Beirut.

Hezbollah originally controlled two villages in this region, and Amal controlled at least eight. The rest are controlled by a joint force of Sunni Muslim Lebanese fighters from Sidon and Palestinian guerrillas from the refugee camp of Ein el Hilwa at the outskirts of the city.

Sources said Hezbollah seemed to have the upper hand in the battles late Saturday as its fighters captured Amal’s positions in at least four strategic villages.

But Amal sources denied that any of its positions remained under Hezbollah control.

Witnesses said many houses were destroyed and cars damaged as smoke billowed into the sky over the embattled region.

Panicked residents who were not able to escape the first day of fighting took advantage of the short lull at night and left their houses for safer areas, witnesses said. More were seen fleeing the region as battles renewed Sunday.

Security sources said Hezbollah, which can field up to 4,000 hard-core fighters, has massed more than 1,500 in the region, while Amal, which has a regular force of about 6,000, was rushing reinforcements down from Beirut.

The confrontation between Amal and Hezbollah was the third this month and the latest in a series of intermittent battles between them since May, 1987, that has killed at least 600 people and wounded 1,700 others.

An agreement signed by both militias last January in Damascus under the sponsorship of Syria and Iran did not end the bloody struggle for power.