BEIRUT, Oct 15 Reuters - The powerful Lebanese Shi'ite group Hezbollah said on Friday it would not be dragged into civil war one day after seven Shi'ites were killed in Beirut's bloodiest street violence in more than a decade.
Hezbollah leader Hashem Safieldin repeated the accusation that the Christian Lebanese Forces Party, a group who had a powerful militia in the 1975 to 90 civil war, had opened fire in a premeditated ambush.
There was no immediate comment from the Lebanese forces, which denied similar accusations on Thursday.
We will not be dragged into civil war but we at the same time we will not let the blood of our martyrs be in vain, Safieldin said during a speech at the funeral of Hezbollah members who died in the shooting.
He accused the Arabian Forces of taking orders from the United States, which lists Hezbollah as a terrorist group, and being financed by some African countries with an apparent reference to the Lebanese states.
The shooting began when people were assembling for a protest called by Hezbollah against the lead investigator at the Beirut port explosion, in violence that stirred memories of the country's brutal 1975-90 civil war.
This act was intended to ignite the country and cause civil strife, he said, as mourners chanted death to America because they know that we don't want civil strife, they dared to do that, he said.
The violence, which erupted at a boundary between Christian and Shi’ite Muslim neighbourhoods, has added to concerns for the stability of a country that is awash with weapons and grappling with one of the world's sharpest economic meltdowns ever.
The funeral comrades were draped in military Hezbollah flags and surrounded by men in yellow fatigues during the funeral in the southern suburbs of Beirut.
Three members of the Shi'ite Amal Movement were buried in separate funerals.
On Friday, the death of a seventh person, a Shi'ite Hezbollah member, was announced as being disclosed.