STEVE INSKEEP, host:
Diplomats from around the Arab world are in Beirut today, and that puts them in a country that could use some diplomacy. There were six days of fighting in Lebanon last week. On one side were supporters of the government. On the other side was the powerful militia of the Shiite opposition group, Hezbollah. Pro-government forces surrendered to Hezbollah fighters in the capital. And in the mountain villages in the outskirts of Beirut, there was intense fighting. And as villagers bury their dead, there's fear the worst is not over. NPR's Peter Kenyon reports.
PETER KENYON: In the Druze village of Choueifat, the women walk down the twisting narrow streets clad in black with white scarves draped over their shoulders. They gathered at a funeral, clapping according to tradition, as the casket passed by and offered condolences to the family members who cried out in grief.
(Soundbite of yelling and clapping)
KENYON: As the funeral service began, bystanders repeated tales of innocent Druze men slaughtered by Hezbollah, though all refused to give their names, saying they feared reprisals. A tall, slender young man with a white cap and a nervous twitch in his cheek said he called the owner of a house where 10 Druze fighters were facing what he described as probably 200 Hezbollah fighters. He said the Druze men had agreed to surrender, leaving their weapons inside. Through the open phone line, he says he heard the Hezbollah fighters open fire on the unarmed men.
Unidentified Man: One of them did not want this, I suppose. He told him, no, no, don't shoot them. But the others kept shooting at them, and they murdered them, cold-blooded. These people are unhuman. These people are animals.
KENYON: The scene of the alleged massacre is not far away, on a busy stretch of road leading into the village. Here, a very different picture emerges, one more in keeping with Hezbollah's reputation as a highly disciplined fighting force. Thirty-nine-year-old Sohail Shahadi(ph) works at a construction supply yard directly across the street from the charred and battered stone house with a large garage where the fighting took place on Sunday. While the young men at the funeral couldn't say why this particular house had been targeted by Hezbollah, Shahadi knew the answer. It was an arms storehouse for militiamen loyal to Druze leader Walid Jumblatt.
Mr. SOHAIL SHAHADI: (Through translator) The garage that you see in front of you was full of weapons, and rockets and RPGs. They had surveillance cameras, Kalashnikovs, long-distance sniper rifles and night vision goggles.
KENYON: Shahadi said some of the men in the house, including the owner, a local sheikh, had been handed over alive to the Lebanese army. But a later attempt at negotiating the peaceful surrender of the remaining militiamen in the house broke down, leading to a pitched battle that lasted through the night and into the next morning. He said he didn't know exactly how many lives had been lost, but at least four Hezbollah fighters and five Druze militiamen were killed. Other villagers have still different versions of what happened, but in the aftermath of the violence, this young Druze man believes Hezbollah is out to win by force what it has been unable to win at the ballot box or by civil disobedience.
Unidentified Man #2: They want to control everything in Lebanon and control the regime. They succeed in Beirut. But, of course, here is not like Beirut. We never, ever let them come in. They will come in on our bodies only.
KENYON: And yet analysts say it's Walid Jumblatt who appears to have lost the most in the wake of last week's violence. After long being the most outspoken government voice against Hezbollah and its Syrian and Iranian backers, Jumblatt now faces a balance of power that is tilted very much against him, says Oussama Safa at the Lebanese Center for Political Studies.
Mr. OUSSAMA SAFA (Lebanese Center for Political Studies): The Druze leader Jumblatt, as well as other majority leaders, have very few options other than take the road of compromise. I think the game of banking on regional or international support is abruptly over. I think people have to find a graceful exit for everyone.
KENYON: For now, Lebanese say they hope a peaceful solution can be found. But in the Druze and in the Christian villages above the capital, there's also a growing sense that this week may mark a lull in the fighting, not the end of it.
Peter Kenyon, NPR News, Beirut. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
