Tensions high in Lebanon after assault on clerics

By Zeina Karam
Published March 18, 2013 4:00am ET
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Tensions high in Lebanon after assault on clerics
Lebanese army riot soldiers stand guard at a street which was blocked by protesters, after two Sunni Muslim sheikhs at dar al-Fatwa, Lebanon's highest Sunni Authority, were attacked by Shiite men late Sunday, in Beirut, Lebanon, Monday March 18, 2013. A few hundred protesters held a demonstration while others blocked roads after four Sunni Muslim sheiks were assaulted in two separate incidents that inflamed sectarian sentiment in the country. Tensions have been running high in Lebanon in recent months, mainly because of the Syrian civil war raging next door. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla) | Hussein Malla

BEIRUT (AP) — Several hundred demonstrators angry over attacks against Sunni Muslim clerics blocked roads with garbage bins and burning tires in Beirut and other Lebanese cities on Monday, enflaming old tensions already boiling over the conflict in Syria.

The country is sharply split along sectarian lines, and the civil war next door has exacerbated those divisions among supporters and opponents of President Bashar Assad. The split is a legacy of the nearly three decades when Damascus all but ruled Lebanon, until 2005.

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