Street battles between pro- and anti-Syrian groups in Beirut overnight left two people dead, a security official said Monday, sparking concerns the conflict in Syria is increasingly spilling into Lebanon. “During the night, groups of young men cut off the road in the Tareek el-Jdideh district and street battles followed,” the official said, requesting anonymity. “Two people were killed and 18 were wounded,” he said, adding that machine guns had been fired and that the fighting had raged until about 3.00 A.M. (2400 GMT). An office housing a small pro-Syrian party in Tareek el-Jdideh, a mainly Sunni Muslim neighborhood of west Beirut, was torched by followers during the clashes and the facade of the building was riddled with bullets. Several motorcycles and cars parked on the street below were burned. The situation had returned to calm by daylight and students could be seen heading on foot to the nearby Arab University. Tension, however, was palpable in the capital where residents fear a repeat of sectarian clashes similar to those that brought the country close to civil war in 2008. The latest fighting erupted hours after reports emerged that army troops had shot dead Sheikh Ahmed Abdul Wahid, a prominent anti-Syria Sunni cleric, when his convoy failed to stop at a checkpoint in north Lebanon on Sunday. Another cleric in the car was also killed. Wahid's funeral was held late Monday in the northern region of Akkar where many businesses and shops were closed as a mark of respect. Wahid's body was transported to his hometown of Al-Bireh draped in the Lebanese flag as well as the Syrian revolutionary flag and that of the anti-Syrian Future Movement of former premier Saad Hariri. A judicial official said Monday that 21 soldiers, including three officers, were being questioned by military police in relation to the sheikh's death.
