Lebanon conflict puts army unity to the test

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Armed conflict in Lebanon between Shi'ites and rival Sunnis and Druze has put the army's unity to the test, threatening to split an institution seen as a bulwark against a new civil war.

The fighting -- Lebanon's worst internal strife since the 1975-90 civil war -- has placed great strain on an army whose ranks reflect the country's sectarian mosaic.

The military lacked both the will and means to stand in the way of the powerful Shi'ite Hezbollah and its allies when they took over Beirut last week, drawing criticism from leaders whose followers were routed in the campaign.

"There is a central problem which is the unity of the army," said Saad al-Hariri, Lebanon's most prominent Sunni politician and leader of the ruling coalition. "Today, unfortunately, this army was not capable of defending citizens," he said on Tuesday.

The United States has promised military aid in response to the campaign against its allies by the Iranian-backed Hezbollah.

At least 16 officers whose loyalties lie with the ruling coalition tendered their resignations on Tuesday, security sources said.

Their commanders rejected the resignations, trying to preserve the unity of one of the few Lebanese institutions still functioning after 18 months of political conflict that has paralyzed most of the state.

The collapse of the army in 1976, when it split along sectarian lines, catalyzed Lebanon's descent into militia rule.

"The army is all that is left of the Lebanese state," Salim al-Hoss, a former prime minister, told a news conference, adding his voice to others stressing the danger facing Lebanon.

"Without the army, it would be total chaos -- a nightmare that you would not believe," Timur Goksel, an expert on security affairs in Lebanon, told Reuters. Beirut would be "taken over by militias".

REAL THREAT

The army won the respect of many Lebanese last year during its campaign against an al Qaeda-inspired Islamist group based at a Palestinian refugee camp. It lost 169 soldiers in the fighting against Fatah al-Islam.

The battle raised the profile of army chief General Michel Suleiman, whose nomination to fill the vacant presidency is supported by both the Hezbollah-led opposition and the ruling coalition.

But the army has warned that the latest escalation in Lebanon's crisis poses a real threat. It would "harm the unity of military institution", it said in a statement last week. Around one third of the army's 40,000 soldiers are Sunnis, with Shi'ites and Christians accounting for the majority of the rest.

Hezbollah, by far the strongest military force in the country, quickly pulled out of most areas it had seized last week and handed control to the army.

The army, which has a history of good ties with Hezbollah, took possession of weapons belonging to government supporters.

That could not have happened if it did not enjoy a measure of trust on both sides, allowing it to play the role of mediator and to restore state authority to streets that fell into militia hands for the first time since the war.

The army had acted "very prudently" over the last week, Goksel said. Confronting Hezbollah would have dealt it a lethal blow, both militarily and politically. The institution would have lost the support of Lebanon's Shi'ites, the majority of whom support Hezbollah and the allied Amal movement.

But being seen as acquiescent is also a danger to its unity.

"The army is vulnerable," Goksel said.