Fighting turns glamorous Beirut into ghost town

By Khaled Yacoub Oweis

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Children play street football in the Tareek al-Jadeedi neighborhood of Beirut, one of the few signs of normal life in a city transformed by three days of fighting into a ghost town.

"We could only manage to come out this afternoon after the army deployed. There was too much sniping in the last two days," said Tareq al-Masri, 14.

The crowded Sunni Muslim area has been scene to some of the worst of the battles between pro-government gunmen and fighters loyal to the Shi'ite movement Hezbollah, in which at least 13 people were killed.

Only a handful of shops reopened on Friday after the army was deployed and routed gunmen loyal to parliamentary majority leader Saad al-Hariri laid down their weapons.

The violence has shaken the image Lebanon has painstakingly rebuilt as the business and entertainment centre of the Arab Middle East in the aftermath of its 1975-1990 civil war.

Beirut was known as the "Paris of the Middle East" before the war, which claimed some 150,000 lives and invited foreign interference. Its mix of social tolerance, high culture and laissez-faire economics has been revived and remains unique in the Arab world.

Mistakes of the past should not be repeated, the middle-class residents of Tareek al-Jadeedi said.

"The last civil war still haunts the Lebanese. There is no appetite to repeat it, as much as the politicians try," said grocery shop owner Nael Tarif.

"Politicians can always go to the American embassy and it will give them visas if things get worse. Normal folk cannot. They do not want war," a pharmacy owner said.

Across the street gunmen armed with AK-47 automatic rifles manned checkpoints in the Shi'ite Barboor district. Some set tires ablaze and turned back traffic. Private lorries filled with sand were on standby to block more roads, but business and traffic in Beirut had already come to a halt.

On the seafront, a television building owned by Hariri was ablaze after opposition fighters set it on fire. The famous corniche, usually crammed with Beirutis and tourists, was empty. A large ferris wheel had stopped turning.

In the Solidere district of central Beirut, the focus of a huge rebuilding project launched by Hariri's father, late premier Rafik al-Hariri who was assassinated in 2005, cranes were at a standstill and building sites were abandoned.

Raja Makarem, a leading real estate broker, said he feared Lebanon's property boom might fall victim to the latest conflict.

"I thought Hezbollah would only prove their point and show they can close down the capital, then withdraw its fighters and invite the army to take over," Makarem said.

"After the chaos continued today and the burning of the TV station I am not so sure," he said. "Hezbollah has failed to show that it is not just another militia. Lebanon is entering a new era."

(Editing by Andrew Roche)