BEIRUT: The security situation stabilized in Beirut's suburbs Friday, ending the clashes that started a day before between the Lebanese Army and rioters taking part in a demonstration organized by the General Labor Confederation.

While securing main roads leading to the airport and other essential destinations, the army withdrew its troops from the southern suburbs and redeployed its units away from angry crowds in Hay al-Sellom and other suburbs, where thousands of mourners gathered to bury their dead chanting anti-government slogans. Six people, including five civilians, died during the clashes, which also left dozens wounded.

Tensions remained high among rioters who took to the streets in several areas including Bourj al-Barajneh, Hay al-Sellom and Hadath, setting up roadblocks of burning tires and disrupting traffic movement from one neighborhood to another.

But with the security forces out of the way to avoid any potential clashes, the crowds dispersed peacefully from most areas and the demonstrations died out within hours.

Hizbullah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah, who was supposed to give a news conference regarding the event around midday Friday, postponed the conference indefinitely.

Hizbullah's press attache Sheikh Haidar Diqmaq said Nasrallah did not cancel the news conference but rather postponed it until further notice.

But some observers link the move to "high ranking promises" that serious investigations are under way to determine who instigated the violence that threatened the good relations and "alliance between the army and the resistance forces."

Mount Lebanon pro-Hizbullah MP Ali Ammar told reporters that "from the start, Hizbullah had repeatedly called upon the army units to withdraw and avoid confrontations with angry crowds and we still believe the Internal Security Forces, not the army should have handled such crowds."

"On Thursday, we participated in the demonstration to express dissatisfaction with the government's economic policies not to clash with security forces,"said Mohammed Miqdad, whose brother was injured Thursday, adding: "A simple and serious investigation into what happened yesterday would reveal the real culprits who caused such atrocious unrest."

Eyewitnesses reported that Hizbullah members and supporters were watching out to track down any would-be snipers who might take rooftop positions during the night.

Local inhabitants did not send their children to school on Friday morning; schoolchildren were stranded at school until late hours Thursday evening.

The military prosecutor, Judge John Fahd, followed the preliminary investigations carried out with some 80 detainees suspected in taking part or witnessing the sequence of events that left the Labor Ministry compound in flames. Fahd also convened with the military police commander, Brigadier Nabil Ghafry, to discuss the latest developments and findings following the clashes. After a meeting with State Prosecutor Adnan Addoum, Fahd said the total number of those arrested and in the custody of the military police reached 124, while another seven suspects were in the custody of the army's Intelligence Directorate. Addoum confirmed that investigations were under way to determine the reasons behind the clash and whether there was any plot to cause the riot.

In Baalbek and Hermel, tensions heightened as news of the clashes, whose victims were mostly from the Bekaa, broke out. With roadblocks still up from the day before, the bodies arrived at their respective towns and villages.

In Hermel, the angry drivers drove their mini-buses into the cemetery reminding the mourners of the original cause of the clashes the protests called by Lebanon's Labor Confederation against soaring gasoline prices.

In the Bekaa village of Younin that lost one of its inhabitants, the villagers assembled and issued a declaration condemning the shooting of innocent demonstrators, and "wishing that all ministers and MPs are not welcomed in their village and their condolences are not accepted."

In the name of the Union of Mini-van and Taxi Drivers, Hermel Branch, Ashraf Hamade told drivers sitting-in in front of Hermel Governor's House, "As we bury our innocent victims, we insist on the peaceful nature of our continued sit-in in protesting the government's policies. We also call for punishing those officials or individuals who turned a peaceful demonstration into a bloody scene."

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