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GOVERNMENT STRUGGLES TO STOP VIOLENCE IN LEBANON
Overseas Security Advisory Council
Date Reported: Wednesday, January 05, 2000
Incident Type: SECURITY
Country: LEBANON

Incident: Lebanese troops engaged in house-to-house combat with Islamic extremists in two northern villages Tuesday in a fifth day of escalating violence.

Five days of fighting in the Dinniyah region, a mountainous area 60 miles north of Beirut, has left 11 soldiers and 10 civilians dead. An unknown number of militants also have been killed in what is the worst confrontation between the Lebanese military and Muslim fundamentalists since the end of the 1975-90 civil war.

Underlining the seriousness of the conflict, the Cabinet asked Lebanon's highest judicial authority to investigate the reasons behind the fighting, as well as Monday's attack on the Russian Embassy in Beirut. The Judicial Council is charged with cases seen as destabilizing national security.

During the past decade, Lebanon has lived in relative peace and the latest fighting could test the cohesiveness of the army -- made up of both Muslims and Christians -- as it battles Islamic militants.

Also Tuesday, Hezbollah, the Shiite Muslim group leading the guerrilla war against the Israeli occupation forces in the south, condemned the fighting in the north. Arms should only be used to resist the Israeli occupation, a Hezbollah statement said, adding that the violence could lead to "suspicion of sedition at the expense of our people."