At least three people, including senior Hizbullah activist, were killed in clashes between supporters of the Shiite movement and fighters of a small Sunni group in Beirut on Tuesday, an army spokesman said. According to AFP, police said the fighters were using shoulder-launched rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns in the fighting, in which another three people were injured.
"A personal fight between a supporter of Hizbullah and another of Al-Ahbash erupted just after 7:00 pm (1600 GMT) in Beirut's Burj Abi Haidar neighbourhood and escalated into a firefight in which two men were killed, one of whom has been identified as a supporter of Hezbollah," the army spokesman was quoted as saying.
Burj Abi Haidar is an area in west Beirut and considered a stronghold of parliamentary speaker Nabih Berri's Shiite Amal movement.
The fighting took place as Hizbullah chief Hassan Nasrallah addressed an all-women Ifter. .