Word: sunni
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Whether or not that is so, the Shi'ite attitude toward their fellow Lebanese has hardened. One of the dangers of the Israeli withdrawal is that it could lead to a bitter struggle between the Shi'ite majority and the Sunni Muslim and Christian minorities, not to mention the remaining Palestinian civilian population. In recent weeks, Shi'ite radicals have killed more than a dozen southern Lebanese as alleged collaborators with the Israelis. The Israeli pullback could spark a bloodier and more widespread settling of Lebanese scores. Precisely such an explosion took place between Lebanon's Christian and Druze militias...
...early test of southern Lebanon's stability could come in the city of Sidon (pop. 200,000), one of the first sites to be abandoned by the Israelis in the withdrawal. Sidon's population is preponderantly Sunni Muslim. To the north, the city is flanked by Christian hillside communities, to the south by Shi'ites. Almost in the center of Sidon lies the Palestinian refugee camp of Ein el Helweh, with 40,000 inhabitants...
...July 4. In the four hours of fighting that followed, the largely Christian Fifth Brigade in the east traded fire with the mostly Muslim Sixth Brigade in the west. Five people were wounded. The event revived fears that the army is dangerously divided along religious lines. Said a prominent Sunni Muslim politician: "If the army cannot control Beirut, what hope is there that it can control the rest of the country...
...months, relative calm had settled over Lebanon under a peace plan adopted by its warring factions and backed by nearby Syria. The peace fell apart last week. In the northern seaport of Tripoli, a smoldering feud between a fundamentalist Sunni Muslim group known as Tawheed and the pro-Syrian Arab Democratic Party, whose militiamen are sometimes called the Pink Panthers because of their raspberry-colored fatigues, erupted in the worst violence so far this year. Before a truce was called at week's end, at least 100 people had been killed and more than 200 wounded, most of them...
Even last week's accomplishment almost never came about. After hand-picking Karami, a Sunni Muslim, in April, the Syrians pressured Lebanon's warlords into joining his Cabinet. Its meetings, however, took place against a backdrop of daily artillery duels between rival militias. As the fighting grew worse, Syrian Vice President Abdel Halim Khaddam met with the Cabinet at President Amin Gemayel's residence at Bikfaya. According to Lebanese officials, a furious Khaddam promised tough Syrian measures if no compromise was reached. A newly attentive Cabinet appointed a Maronite Christian to head the 25,000-man army...