Hezbollah Conquers Beirut

Gunmen from the Shiite Hezbollah movement seized control of several downtown Beirut neighborhoods Friday as the number of people killed in three days of fighting rose to at least 11.

Hezbollah militants, some carrying assault rifles or rocket-propelled grenade launchers, patrolled outside Starbucks and other shops in the mostly deserted commercial strips of neighborhoods normally controlled by Sunnis loyal to the U.S.-backed Lebanese government. Masked armed men in civilian clothes set up checkpoints and asked passersby for their identity cards, and Hezbollah forces briefly surrounded the homes of Saad Hariri, Lebanon's top Sunnni lawmaker, and Walid Jumblatt, his Druse ally.

Although government troops soon arrived to guard the politicians' residences, and the Hezbollah gunmen stood down, the Associated Press reported that a satellite television station affiliated with Hariri was forced off the air, and the office of his party's newspaper was set on fire.