A Lebanese man was killed on Sunday in clashes that broke out between Shiite and Sunni Muslims in a predominantly Sunni neighborhood in West Beirut, police officials said. Ahmed Ali Mahmoud, a 20-year-old Shiite Muslim, was shot during the clash in the Tarik Jdideh neighborhood. It was not clear where the gunfire came from, the officials said. The gunfire was directed at pro-Hezbollah Shiite protesters.In a separate clash in another West Beirut neighborhood, a fist fight and stone-throwing clash erupted between groups of Shiites and Sunnis, and several shops were set on fire and the windows of at least one car smashed. Army troops fired smoke bombs to disperse the crowd, and at least 20 people were lightly injured in the stone-throwing.
Tensions have been high in the Lebanese capital as Hezbollah and other pro-Syrian groups have held mass protests calling on Prime Minister Fouad Siniora's government to resign. The mounting crisis threatening the Siniora government in Lebanon, and the specter of a Hezbollah takeover, have spurred senior Israeli government officials in Jerusalem to raise several proposals in recent days aimed at strengthening Siniora, who faces street protests that Hezbollah has launched against his government. The goal is to prove that Siniora can obtain more through peaceful diplomacy than Hezbollah, which has accused him of a "defeatist policy" toward Israel, was able to gain through violence.
Israel and several Arab states, including Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan, are increasingly concerned that Siniora's government will fall, resulting in a Hezbollah takeover that would turn the country into what an Israeli government source termed "the first Arab state to become an Iranian protectorate." Former chief of Israel Defense Forces Army Intelligence Corps, Major General (res.) Aharon Ze'evi Farkash, said Sunday the chances of another war in Lebanon would increase should Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora choose to resign.