While eating dinner at a seaside restaurant, we saw dozens of young men parade up and down the corniche in cars and on motorbikes waving Hezbollah and Amal flags (and a few Lebanese and Syrian Social Nationalist Party ones as well). I didn't see anyone fire any guns into the air, but we certainly heard it before we reached the corniche.
Hassan Nasrallah spoke this evening in commemoration of "Liberation Day," the anniversary of the departure of Israeli troops from the south of Lebanon in 2000. Hezbollah's armed resistance is still widely hailed in Lebanon as the reason for Israel's departure. Nasrallah said nothing extraordinarily inflammatory this evening (in fact, he gave at least lip service to reconciliation with his political rivals). But in the minutes and hours after his speech, according to Naharnet and Now Lebanon, clashes broke out in the neighborhood of Corniche al Mazraa in Beirut and in the village of Talabaaya in the Bekaa. Now Lebanon is reporting that rocket propelled grenades were fired at the Abed an-Nasser mosque in Corniche al Mazraa.
I'll update this with more details as I hear about them.
UPDATE: Ya Liban, an unapologetically pro-government news source, summarizes this evening's violence as follows:
This is an unfortunate development, but it should not incite panic. Nasrallah gave no indication in his speech that he wished Hezbollah and its allies in the streets to begin using their arms again. It is therefore safe to assume that the clashes that broke out this evening were fairly isolated events, or at least, not dictated from above. Political tensions, increasingly along sectarian lines, are still very ripe in Lebanon, especially in neighborhoods such as Tarik al-Jedideh and Corniche al-Mazraa, where fighting (and casualties) was quite intense earlier this month. While we might unfortunately see more of these kinds of armed skirmishes, I don't expect tonight's events to escalate into anything more serious or spread to many other areas.1- When [Nasrallah] started his speech his supporters used fire arms to shoot in the air but in doing so they injured 2 people who were taken to a nearby hospital for treatment
2- After his speech ended his followers again used fire arms to shoot in the air but in doing so they injured this time 16 people who were taken to a nearby hospital for treatment
3- In the Beqaa valley Valley village of Taalabaya Hezbollah-led opposition clashed with the ruling majority supporters
4- More violence was reported in Beirut, which was blamed on Nasrallah's speech. Amal and Hezbollah gunmen opened fire and hurled rocks in the direction of Tarik al-Jedideh and Corniche al-Mazraa . RPGs were also fired at the Abed an-Nasser mosque. The Lebanese army has been deployed and has cut off the roads between Corniche al-Mazraa, Barbour and Tarik al-Jedideh. The wounded have been transferred to nearby hospitals.
UPDATE II: The Daily Star just posted a short article on the clashes in Corniche al-Mazraa:
Security sources told The Daily Star that the fight broke out when supporters of Hizbullah and Amal paraded in the streets of Corniche al-Mazraa, a predominantly Sunni neighborhood, shortly after Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah concluded his speech to mark Liberation Day.
Sources added that after verbal insults were traded, the fight degenerated and the two groups exchanged gunfire.
The exact number of casualties was not immediately clear. Security sources said nine people were hurt, while Future Television, which is owned by the family of parliamentary majority head and Sunni leader Saad Hariri, said 16 people were wounded in what it called "attacks by Amal and Hizbullah supporters."
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