Beirut Unraveling

Hizbullah isn't sitting back and letting their demonstrators hang out waiting for Siniora to cave. They're going on the offensive. More than 100 have been wounded in clashes and at least five people have been killed. They're trying to strangle the Siniora government by blocking access into the city.

Beginning early this morning, groups of protesters set up roadblocks along major thoroughfares leading into Beirut, burning tires and setting fire to vehicles while blocking the roads with stones and rubble said to be from buildings demolished in last summer’s Israeli bombardment of the city’s southern suburbs.

In some mixed neighborhoods, groups of young men on either side of the widening political divide squared off, shouting epithets and throwing stones at each other.

Along one major thoroughfare, government loyalists faced off with Hezbollah demonstrators with a brawl and sporadic gunfire. One side raised photos of the Hezbollah leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, and burned photographs of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri, whose assassination in 2005 originally set off Lebanon’s political turmoil. The other side, lined up across the street, raised photographs of Mr. Hariri and Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, and even of Saddam Hussein, while shouting epithets back.

On the coastal highway north of Beirut, supporters of Gen. Michel Aoun, leader of the Free Patriotic Movement and a Hezbollah ally, clashed with men loyal to Samir Geagea, a government ally, throughout the day.

“It is a revolution against us. They are attacking us with stones and burning pictures of our leaders and blocking our roads,” said Ibrahim Hijazi, 29, who said he supports the government. Reuters reported late today that one of the protesters killed was a supporter of Mr. Geagea from Batroun in northern Lebanon, and the other was a Sunni from the northern capital of Tripoli. Stores and businesses in many parts of the country remained closed in observance of a general strike called by Mr. Nasrallah. Much of the city came to a halt as streets were empty and many neighborhoods blanketed in thick black smoke from the burning tires.

Michael Totten has much more on the deteriorating situation and what it means for all involved.

While I was in Lebanon gathering the material I've been publishing, Hezbollah kept threatening to strangle the country by seizing major roads, including the one that leads to the airport. I was worried I might get stuck there, but I didn't. Today, though, they finally make good on their threat. Palestinian guerillas are reportedly helping.

Isn't that lovely. The same Palestinian terrorists that are busy trying to destroy Israel are taking time out to help destroy Israel's neighbor to the North so that they can continue with their ongoing plans to destroy Israel. Of course, a myopic media dominated by Hizbullah propaganda that exhorts the local Shi'ites to violence against the Lebanese government and Israel isn't helping matters either.

Hizbullah can only win a conflict if Israel doesn't feel like it has to finish the fight. The August 2006 war showed what happens when Israel doesn't have its mind set on eliminating the Hizbullah threat. It also shows that if Hizbullah intended to eradicate all traces of Hizbullah, it could have done so by flattening all of Hizbullah's strongholds in Beirut. That it only targeted some buildings and left others untouched shows the lengths to which the Israelis acted to preserve the city's infrastructure. Totten has much more, including photos.

Across the Bay is also quite concerned about the situation.