At least two people died and ten others were injured Thursday in an armed brawl south of Beirut between Shiite Hezbollah supporters and Sunni residents of the Khaldé area, a security source told AFP.
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The violence erupted in the late afternoon against the background of the deployment of Ashura banners and flags by Hezbollah supporters on electricity poles that aroused anger among Sunni residents, said the source. " The clash quickly degenerated into an exchange of fire between the two camps, leaving two dead and ten wounded, " she said.
The army, deployed en masse, cordoned off the area and announced in the early evening that it had sent reinforcements and arrested four people, but the exchanges of fire continued, more than two hours after the outbreak of the brawl, according to local media. .
Tensions between Sunnis and Shiites remain fairly high in Lebanon, where sectarian incidents have already erupted in the past between supporters of Hezbollah, pro-Iran, and Sunni allies of Saudi Arabia, against the backdrop of an arm between the two regional heavyweights.
Lebanon has been stuck for months in an unprecedented economic crisis, amplified by the Covid-19 and increased political instability since the outbreak last fall of an unprecedented popular uprising against the ruling class. Shia Muslims commemorate the Ashura at the end of August, an essential rite observed by millions of worshipers around the world in memory of the martyrdom of Hussein, grandson of the Prophet Muhammad.
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