Mosque siege goes overnight

The fighting began about 40 kilometers (25 miles) south of Beirut in the port city of Sidon on Sunday and continued into Monday morning. The army has called for reinforcements after gunmen defending the mosque killed at least 12 soldiers and wounded 40. Reports say that at least two of the gunmen in the mosque have died in the fighting, with at least a dozen injured.

The army vowed in a statement that it "will not tolerate" the violence and that it "will continue to fulfill its mandate to suppress civil strife in the country."

Sidon has remained on edge since violence began there last week between Sunni and Shiite Muslim fighters at odds over Syria's civil war. The cleric, Sheikh Ahmad al-Assir, supports rebels fighting to oust President Bashar al-Assad. He also has strong criticism for the militant Shiite group Hezbollah, which has intervened in the civil war on al-Assad's behalf.

'All noble people'

Witnesses have told news agencies that the violence apparently started when al-Assir supporters surrounded a checkpoint in Abra, where the army had stopped a vehicle transporting other supporters of the cleric. The military announced that it would try to arrest al-Assir, who, for his part, has called on people across Lebanon to join him - and on soldiers to defect.

"To all noble people in the army, Sunni or not Sunni," he said in a YouTube video, wearing a bulletproof vest and holding a gun, "you must leave the army."

Other al-Assir backers have attacked security forces in Sidrn in retaliation for the siege of the mosque and called on their supporters to take to the streets nationwide.

The fighting has trapped hundreds of civilians in their homes, with some making appeals on local television stations for the army to secure a safe passage for them to leave the area. The noncombatant civilian death toll remains unknown.

mkg/dr (Reuters, AFP, dpa, AP)