Beirut sees worst clashes in four years

Sheikh Ahmed Abdul Wahid, an opponent of Syrian President Bashar Assad, was shot dead at a Lebanese army checkpoint on Monday in a part of Lebanon where Sunni sentiment is with Syria's rebels. Demonstrators blocked roads and burned tyres in the northern province of Akkar, and similar protests in Beirut gave way to firefights with machineguns and rocket-propelled grenades. The clashes between gunmen from the Future Movement, loyal to anti-Syrian former Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri, and members of a pro-Syrian party, left two dead and were the worst clashes in Beirut since sectarian fighting brought Lebanon to the brink of civil war in 2008.