The Muslim suburb up ahead looked deserted under the flickering illumination from the flares and distant fires.

Battles were reported from Beirut's predominantly Shiite Muslim southern suburbs to the ancient city of Baalbek, 50 miles to the east.

Those regions are the Bekaa, Lebanon's eastern valley, and Beirut's predominantly Muslim Shiite southern suburbs.

(The riots in France's heavily Muslim suburbs last year are one reason the book got a lot of attention in the European press.)

Also taken into custody were two brothers from Mira Road, a largely Muslim northern suburb of Mumbai.

Scores of Shi'a families were reported to have fled homes in the restive western Muslim suburb of Abu Ghraib.

Several shells also crashed into the runways of Beirut International Airport in the city's Muslim southern suburbs.

His pledge in 2005 to rid France's ethnic Arab and Muslim suburbs of "scum" contributed to a three-week orgy of violence there.

Simultaneously, troops entered the predominantly Muslim Shiite southern suburbs of Beirut.

One person was killed and at least three others wounded when artillery shells hit the Muslim suburb of Hrasnica, Reuters reported.