And in Lebanon......

Hezbullah has taken over large swaths of Beirut. The Lebanese military has mostly stood by and fallen back to protect the leadership of the other parties. The majority of the street battles are between Hezbullah and non-govermental militias among the Sunni and Druze communities.

One casualty of the recent confrontations has been the widespread notion that Sunni militias capable of countering Hezbollah were being trained in Lebanon, said Mr. Naoum, the columnist.

As it turned out, the young Sunni fighters loyal to Mr. Hariri’s Future Movement — part of the government majority — were no match for their better-armed Shiite rivals. Mr. Hariri apparently recognized this, and ordered a withdrawal rather than face a massacre. On Friday, numerous men in the Sunni neighborhood of Tarik Jadideh complained that they had been given instructions not to fight, and now felt humiliated.

The Lebanese government and US are looking to Saudi Arabia, Jordan, etc, for help.

And, in a troubling sign, who wants to step in to rebalance the Sunni effort?

Al-Qaeda has reportedly called on its operatives to go to Lebanon and defend what it called the Sunni community of the country.

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