One day after violent protests erupted in Lebanon, government loyalists and opposition supporters opened fire on each other in the north of the country Wednesday, raising fears of renewed clashes.
Lebanese security forces were trying to break up the violence and there is no word yet of casualties, Reuters reported.
The clash, which occurred in Tripoli, began after the funeral of a government supporter who was killed during fighting Tuesday that left three people dead and 173 injured.
Two of the fatalities occurred in Tripoli when gunmen from neighbouring districts -- one largely Sunni Muslim, the other largely Alawites, a Shiite Muslim offshoot -- fought each other as the Hezbollah-led opposition pushed to topple Prime Minister Fuad Saniora's Western-backed cabinet.
Of those injured on Tuesday, 48 sustained gunshot wounds while the rest suffered blows from sticks or stones. Most of the lightly injured were treated on the spot or at emergency rooms and released.
The violence began after the Hezbollah-led opposition and labour unions called for a general strike but had their demands rejected by the government, its political supporters and business leaders.
Supporters of the opposition took to the streets to set up barricades to enforce the strike, clashing with troops and government supporters who tried to stop them.
Beirut and other parts of the country were paralyzed by the fighting.
Opposition supporters eventually suspended the strike, describing it as a warning to the government of things to come if their demands were not met.
The cleanup
Wednesday began with government workers pulling smouldering tires from major highways, while bulldozers removed debris that blocked the roads.
The road to the Beirut airport, which had been closed by burning tires and earthen barricades, was reopened early Wednesday by the Lebanese army. International flights resumed in the morning, allowing hundreds of stranded passengers to head to their destinations.
The roads from Beirut's southern suburbs, a Hezbollah stronghold, were also reopened to traffic Wednesday but remained littered with debris, rocks, the remnants of burned tires and barricades.
The clashes illustrate the volatile relationship between Saniora's government and the Iranian-backed Hezbollah.
Sectarian rifts between Lebanon's Sunni, Shiite and Christian communities run deep in the country where a bloody civil war lasted from 1975 until 1990.
With files from The Associated Press
