Police to Close Beirut Suburbs to Traffic for Ashura

Lebanese police will prevent vehicles from entering the southern suburbs of Beirut from midnight as part of tight security measures imposed ahead of the Shiite Ashura commemoration, sources said Monday.

Security is usually tight for the event, but residents said this was the first time police were banning vehicles from the Shiite-majority southern suburbs the night before Tuesday's observance.

"All the entrances leading to the southern suburbs will be closed (to vehicles) starting at midnight until the end of the ceremonies," a security source said.

"We are taking tight security measures, including increasing the number of police forces deployed" in the area and surrounding it, he added.

The city's southern suburbs are a stronghold of Hizbullah, which has seen its bastions come under attack by Sunni extremists over its involvement in the war in neighboring Syria.

Ashura marks the peak of 10 days of mourning for the death of Imam Hussein, one of the most revered figures in Shiite Islam.

Shiites marking the occasion have regularly been attacked in Iraq and elsewhere, including in Nigeria, where 15 people were killed Monday in a blast targeting an Ashura procession.

This year's commemoration in Lebanon comes amid growing tension between Sunni and Shiite Muslims over the war in Syria.

Hizbullah has dispatched fighters to bolster Syria's government against the Sunni-led uprising there.

Hizbullah's strongholds in Lebanon have been targeted in multiple bomb attacks claimed by Sunni extremist groups who want the Shiite movement to withdraw its fighters from Syria.