Nearly all is quiet in Hamra this evening, with only an occasional shot fired in the distance, which a friend of mine described as "calm shooting." In addition to Hezbollah, the Syrian Social Nationalist Party, and possibly Amal, are apparently controlling the neighborhood, according to Now Lebanon.
We took a walk around campus at sunset. Everything is quiet; a good number of faculty and a handful of students were strolling through AUB's leafy campus. We walked as far as the medical gate, on the campus's southeast corner and saw a large group of Hezbollah (and presumably, Syrian Social Nationalist Party soldiers) guarding the crossroads between Bliss Street and Rue Clemenceau. Bliss was completely empty until a convoy of tanks rolled through at about 8:00 p.m. So my earlier report that Hezbollah is handing control of neighborhoods over to the military does not seem to be entirely true, at least not here. Instead, it seems that Hezbollah and SSNP militias are rooted in the neighborhood and the Lebanese military accepts their presence.
The fighting, which had been limited to West Beirut and the Bekka, has now apparently emerged in the southern town of Saida and the northern city of Tripoli. I heard from someone with a direct eye on the situation that Hariri's residence in Qoretian is currently under firm control by the Lebanese military and his own Future Movement security.
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