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Beirut calms after Hezbollah's withdrawal from streets |
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Saturday, 10 May 2008 |
The Hezbollah militants have withdrawn from the streets of West Beirut, Lebanon, after three days of violence in which at least 20 people were killed.
The City of Beirut is reportedly calm. The Lebanese Prime Minister, Fouad Siniora, is due to address the nation later today in his first public response to Hezbollah's effective takeover of west Beirut.
The Lebanese government described the seizure of most of western Beirut by the Shia'a group as "a bloody coup". Leaders of Lebanon's rival political factions are due to meet later on Saturday and the Arab League will hold emergency talks about the crisis on Sunday.
But the Television station known as Future TV run by the Sunni leader Saad Hariri is still off the air after gunmen forced its closure on Friday.
The fighting was sparked by a government move last Monday to shut down Hezbollah's telecoms network. The Lebanese army had not intervened to stop Hezbollah fighters from seizing large areas of western Beirut.
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