Lebanese troops patrolled Beirut on Sunday after Hezbollah fighters pulled back from areas they had seized in gun battles with supporters of the US-backed government. But fighting broke out overnight in Tripoli between pro- and anti-government gunmen.
Security sources said at least two people were killed and five were wounded before the army deployed to end the clashes in Lebanon's second largest city. Police put the toll of five days of fighting in Beirut and elsewhere at 44 dead and 128 wounded.
Hundreds of soldiers backed by armoured vehicles set up roadblocks and took up positions on the streets of the mainly Muslim part of the capital. There were no gunmen in sight but youths maintained barricades on some crucial roads, ensuring Beirut's air and sea ports remained closed. The Hezbollah-led opposition said it would maintain a campaign of "civil disobedience" until all its demands were met.
Hezbollah, a political group backed by Iran and Syria and which has a guerrilla army, said on Saturday it was ending its armed presence in Beirut after the army overturned government decisions against it.
While tension eased in Beirut, there was little progress in efforts to resolve the political disputes that have plunged Lebanon into its worst crisis since the 1975-90 civil war. "At the level of what caused the immediate crisis, we are half way towards defusing it," said Paul Salem, director of the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut, "We seem to be over that immediate hump." But no end to the wider crisis was in sight. Hezbollah took over much of west Beirut on Friday after its fighters routed supporters of the anti-Syrian ruling coalition.
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