Firefight between Hizbullah and Amal in Beirut leaves two dead

Lebanese security forces patrolled a Beirut suburb Friday after an overnight firefight between rival Muslim Shiite parties left two men dead and six people injured on both sides, security officials said.  

The clash in the southern district of Kafaat was caused after a scuffle over the hanging of party flags and posters of the leaders of Hizbullah and Amal. 

Lebanese soldiers intervened and brought the situation under control, the officials said. 

Police identified the fatalities as Hisham Bayrak of Amal and Hussein Aaladdin of Hizbullah.  

The clash was described as "a local incident" and was not expected to spread to other suburbs of Shiite-populated south Beirut. "It is not going to expand into a serious confrontation," one official said. 

In March 2002, 15 people were wounded in a clash between the two groups in the southern town of Nabatiyeh, and in June that year Amal fighters killed two Hizbullah members in the southern village of Markaba.