False Security

For two months, relative calm had settled over Lebanon under a peace plan adopted by its warring factions and backed by nearby Syria. The peace fell apart last week. In the northern seaport of Tripoli, a smoldering feud between a fundamentalist Sunni Muslim group known as Tawheed and the pro-Syrian Arab Democratic Party, whose militiamen are sometimes called the Pink Panthers because of their raspberry-colored fatigues, erupted in the worst violence so far this year. Before a truce was called at week's end, at least 100 people had been killed and more than 200 wounded, most of them civilians. That brought the total number of deaths in the Tripoli fighting since January to 400. The Lebanese government of Prime Minister Rashid Karami, which has been unable to extend its authority to Tripoli, also saw its tenuous grip around the city of Beirut loosen somewhat. Ten people were wounded when fighting erupted once more between rival Christian and Druze militias in the hills overlooking the capital.