BEIRUT: Two people were killed Thursday in clashes south of Beirut involving Hezbollah supporters.
Three more were injured when the fighting erupted in the town of Khaldeh.
The gunfight was sparked after Hezbollah supporters raised a religious banner angering members of local tribes, which support the rival Future Movement.
The fighting escalated into heavy gunfire using light and medium weapons.
The dead were identified as a Lebanese tribesman and a Syrian man. In retaliation, a building containing a supermarket was set on fire.
The situation remained tense for hours, prompting the Lebanese army to send military reinforcements to Khaldeh to restore calm.
Videos showed people attacking passing cars on the road to Khaldeh.
Director-General of Public Security, Major General Abbas Ibrahim mediated talks between Hezbollah and the Future Movement to withdraw the militants from the street.
The Union of Arab Tribes in Lebanon called on “the army leadership and leaders of the security services to intervene to stop the clashes in Khaldeh.”
The Union said it held the political leadership of Hezbollah and the Amal Movement, both Shiite parties, responsible for the escalation.
It warned that the “the tribal areas and Arab tribes in Lebanon would not be a hotbed for directing your political messages and we hold you responsible for every single drop of blood that falls from the Tribes.”
The Union accused the groups of operating outside of the law and acting against the state and its institutions.
The Future Movement, led by the former Sunni Prime Minister Saad Hariri, said the fighting was the result of “intrusive weapons and pointless provocations.”
The party demanded that the army and security forces restored security and safety in the area and arrest “the aggressors.”
The statement called on the Arab tribes in Khaldeh to exercise the “utmost restraint” and work to calm things down while cooperating with the security forces.
Later in the evening tensions had shifted to Beirut amid concern that rival groups may come together in the city’s Hezbollah-dominated southern suburbs and on the highway linking Beirut with southern Lebanon.
Army units opened roads that had been blocked by supporters of the tribes in the Beirut neighborhood of Qasqas, in Naameh to the south of Khaldeh, and in the town of Hayssa in the north.
Lebanon has been tense since a huge explosion of stored chemicals devastated Beirut earlier this month.
In addition, judges last week delivered the long-awaited verdicts in an international trial into the 2005 assassination of Saad Hariri’s father, Rafik.
Salim Jamil Ayyash, a Hezbollah member, was convicted in absentia of carrying out the bombing that also killed 21 others.
His image was posted by Hezbollah supporters in Khaldeh last week - a provocation to the tribes that support the Future Movement.
