BEIRUT, Lebanon -- War-torn Lebanon paused for a one-day general strike Wednesday to protest the killing of a top Sunni Moslem clergyman, uniting rival Christians and Moslems for the first time in seven years of civil war.
The strike closed shops, banks, schools, factories, businesses and public and government offices throughout the country.
It also brought traffic to a near halt as residents stayed at home.
Sheikh Ahmed Assaf, a senior Islamic leader and vocal anti-communist, was gunned down by three assailants Monday while driving home from amosque in Moslem West Beirut, where he was leading prayers.
Assaf was riding in his car next to the driver when the gunmen attacked him with Soviet AK-47 automatic rifles, hitting him nine times.
The Grand Mufti, Sheikh Hassan Khaled, issued a call Tuesday for a general strike in Moslem West Beirut to protest the 'crime' and to allow the 45-year-old Assaf's 'numerous' followers to join the funeral procession.
Then the leader of the right-wing Phalangist party, Beshir Gemayel, announced residents of Christian areas under his control since the 1975-76 civil war would join their 'Moslem brothers' in a strike to protest the 'ugly crime.'
It was the first time Moslem and Christian political foes had shown political unity since the bloody 18-month war.
Hundreds of residents had gathered by the late Sheikh's house and outside the mosque where the funeral service was held, urging the government to find the assailants and 'chop off their hands.'
Prime Minister Chefik Wazzan, head of the Islamic Council in which Assaf was a member, led mourners in the funeral procession Wednesday through Beirut's streets.
