New Firing Breaks Truce in Lebanon : Beirut: Battles resume a day after a cease-fire halts fighting that killed more than 50 people.

Mortar batteries and rocket launchers lighted up the sky Sunday in renewed violence just 24 hours after rival Christian forces reached a cease-fire agreement that had ended two days of bloody clashes, police said.

Renewed fighting between army troops loyal to Maj. Gen. Michel Aoun and Samir Geagea’s Lebanese Forces broke out around the neighboring villages of Qlaiat and Daraya. Each side maintain strategic positions in the Christian Maronite heartland of Keserwan, 12 miles northeast of Beirut.

Automatic gunfire and artillery shelling rumbled through East Beirut, destroying apartment buildings and killing at least three people Sunday night, police and witnesses said.

The new violence raised the death toll close to 60 and the number of wounded to more than 100 in the recent days of fighting for control of the Christian areas.

Since the battles began Jan. 31, more than 900 people have died.

A cease-fire agreement Saturday had ended the battles in Qlaiat that erupted Friday. Police said gunfire fell silent along the four-mile front line in Keserwan late Saturday after a Christian mediation team convinced the two rival leaders to hold their fire.

Aoun is “now ready to engage in political efforts to break the deadlock (with Geagea) and reach a settlement,” a source said Aoun had told the team, which has been trying to work out inter-Christian differences.

Military sources said Geagea had launched attacks against Aoun in Qlaiat to drive him out of Keserwan, a Lebanese Forces militia stronghold. The sources said Geagea wanted to distract Aoun from attacking the militia headquarters in East Beirut.