Gusts of automatic rifles were fired tonight in Beirut by unspecified armed men in the context of growing political and sectarian tensions in the Lebanese capital. An ANSA journalist found this on the spot. Firearms were repeatedly heard near the Cola road junction, not far from the city center. The Lebanese army was deployed tonight in force near the roads that divide the neighborhoods controlled by the Shiite Hezbollah and Amal parties from the predominantly Sunni neighborhoods of Qasqas and Tariq Jdide, not far from Cola. After 40 days of continuous non-violent anti-government protests in central Beirut, last night and this evening Hizbullah and Amal militants, parties that defend the government and are opposed to ongoing popular mobilization, attacked protesters in central Beirut with sticks, stones and knives, threatening to return in force and with firearms