Photo by: AFP

The army was out in force in the mainly Sunni districts affected by the fighting. People walked past party flags and pictures of pro-Syrian politicians while buying food from shops that were open for only limited hours. Many roads, including the main motorway to Beirut airport, remained blocked with mounds of sand blocking the carriageways. Opposition supporters prevented street cleaners from removing one such roadblock. In any case three lorries filled with earth were parked nearby, ready to replace the blockage.

One Shiite woman married to a Sunni said she was so disgusted with what happened that she was ready to convert. The woman, who did not wish to give her name, said that opposition supporters in her neighbourhood drove slowly past her on Sunday broadcasting a speech by Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah as she strolled down the street.
Many like her think that it will take Lebanon a long time to overcome the resentment caused by the bloodshed of recent days. "Tension and friction is mounting between the different sects and parties," said Abdel Karim Sherri, 78, who lives in the mixed Sunni-Shiite neighborhood of Ras an-Nabba. "It will take a really long time to overcome them." Rajaa put it bluntly. “We used to be brothers. Now, we're enemies."

Ali, 61, a Shiite originally from the south, shared the worries of his Sunni compatriots. But "We need to find a way to agree," said Ali, who owns a small shop in the Sanayeh area of west Beirut. "We are all Lebanese and we have a bigger enemy, a Zionist enemy," he added, in allusion to the 34-day war with Israel that devastated much of Lebanon in summer 2006.

(AFP)