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BEIRUT – An explosive, eight-hour shootout in west Beirut that apparentlyerupted after a domestic dispute killed at least two people earlyThursday, including a gunman who was firing machine guns andlobbing grenades from his balcony. An officer and four soldiers were wounded in the gunbattle, whichbegan Wednesday night in the residential Caracas neighborhood, thearmy said in statement. Lebanese troops stormed an apartment around 6 a.m., killing onegunman and wounding another, an Associated Press reporter at thescene said. Inside the apartment, authorities also found the corpseof a third gunman along with weapons, ammunition, hand grenades andother military equipment, the army statement said. Lebanon has dozens of armed militias that grew out of the country's15-year civil war and still flourish 22 years after the conflictended, and an alarming number of private individuals hold weaponsin their homes, including hunting rifles, guns and even RPGs. The abundance of weapons is one reason why conflicts here can turndeadly so quickly. The shootout comes at a time of heightened tensions in Lebanon,where deadly clashes linked to the conflict in neighboring Syriahave killed at least 10 people in the past two weeks. Lebanese security officials said at least one of the gunmen wasSyrian. But residents and police officials speaking on condition ofanonymity said Thursday's shooting started with a personal disputebetween a couple. According to residents in the area, one of thegunmen was distraught because his girlfriend was breaking up withhim. The girlfriend was believed to have escaped. During the standoff, a man lobbing grenades at the army from theapartment shouted "Allahu Akbar" and "You will never get inside myapartment!" An army statement issued Thursday did not give a reason for theshootout, but said the soldiers came under fire from gunmen holedup in a seventh floor apartment. The men ignored repeated warnings to turn themselves in, and firedmachine guns and hurled hand grenades at the soldiers surroundingthe building. One of the gunmen apparently was killed early on in the fighting,apparently shot by one of the other men in the apartment. Theremaining gunman kept firing at the soldiers for hours, until thearmy was able to storm the building. The standoff caused panic in west Beirut among residents stillreeling from deadly clashes between pro- and anti-Syrian groups inthe capital early Monday, which killed two people. Syria and Lebanon share a complex web of political and sectarianties and rivalries, often causing events on one side of the borderto echo on the other. The arrest earlier this month of an outspoken Lebanese critic ofSyria led to gunbattles in the northern Lebanese city of Tripolithat killed at least eight people and wounded many more. We are high quality suppliers, our products such as Cooling Tower Sprinkler Manufacturer , Pipe Compensator Manufacturer for oversee buyer. To know more, please visits Gas Burners.
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