By Natacha Yazbeck

BEIRUT, Aug 25, 2010 (AFP) - Lebanese soldiers were deployed in force on Wednesday in tension-gripped Beirut ahead of the funerals of three people killed in a clash between the Shiite movement Hezbollah and a Sunni group.

The clash between Hezbollah and Al-Ahbash broke out late Tuesday in mainly Muslim west Beirut's district of Burj Abi Haidar, a stronghold of parliament speaker Nabih Berri's Shiite Amal movement which is allied with Hezbollah.

The Lebanese cabinet was to discuss the incident in a scheduled meeting later on Wednesday.

Bullet casings and broken glass covered the streets of Burj Abi Haidar on the morning after the fighting, as shopkeepers swept away rubble from their stores and most local residents stayed indoors.

Cars parked in the vicinity were also badly damaged.

Supporters of the two movements -- both close to Damascus -- used shoulder-launched rocket-propelled grenades and machine-guns in four hours of fighting that erupted at about 7 pm (1600 GMT) and also left 10 people wounded.

Two victims have been identified as Hezbollah members Mohammed Fawaz, the Shiite party's representative to Burj Abi Haidar, and Ali Jawad. The third victim was named as Ahmed Omayrat of Al-Ahbash.

Witnesses said the clash began as an argument between Fawaz and supporters of the Sunni group over a parking space near a mosque popular among Al-Ahbash supporters.

The inter-Muslim violence near the mosque broke out at around the time of "iftar," the meal that breaks the dawn-to-dusk fast during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

Jawad was to be buried in his hometown of Kfar Fila in southern Lebanon on Wednesday afternoon and Omayrat in Burj Abi Haidar, while Fawaz's funeral was planned for the next day.

In northern Lebanon, a 26-year-old woman was wounded as two grenade explosions shook the port city of Tripoli overnight, just hours after the clash in Beirut, a security official told AFP.

The woman was in stable condition.

Tuesday's clashes marked the worst violence to grip Beirut since May 2008, when 100 people were killed in battles between supporters of a Hezbollah-led alliance and those of Lebanon's pro-Western Sunni prime minister, Saad Hariri.

Hezbollah and Al-Ahbash, which describes itself as a charity promoting Islamic culture, said in a joint statement that Tuesday's "regrettable incident was isolated and did not have any political or confessional basis."

The Lebanese press on Wednesday expressed surprise the latest round of violence pitted supporters of two groups with similar political views against each other.

"The use of medium-range weapons in religious centres, shops and homes shows that the pot is ready to boil over at any moment, even if the incident was described as personal," warned An-Nahar, close to a Hariri-led alliance.

Hezbollah, Lebanon's most powerful political and military force, is backed by Syria and Iran.

Al-Ahbash emerged in 1983 and gathered strength during Syria's military deployment in Lebanon, which ended under international pressure after the 2005 murder of ex-premier Rafiq Hariri, the current prime minister's father.

The movement has since lost considerable weight.

ny/hc

Copyright AFP 2010.