By Loveday Morris, Washington Post, June 24, 2013

SIDON, Lebanon — The death toll in clashes in Lebanon’s southern city of Sidon continued to climb Monday, marking the bloodiest 48 hours for the country’s army since the conflict in Syria began creeping over the border and evoking memories of Lebanon’s own 15-year civil war.

Fifteen soldiers have been killed in the fighting between the military and Sunni militia supporting Sidon’s firebrand cleric Sheik Ahmed al-Assir, according to a senior security official. Brig. Ali Shahrour said the area around Assir’s mosque, the epicenter of the fighting, had been secured, while the army was hunting for the cleric to arrest him.

While Lebanon has sporadically erupted in sectarian clashes over the past two years, the fighting in Sidon provides a significant test for the country’s security forces, with the potential to pull the Lebanese army into the sectarian fray as the regional Sunni-Shiite tensions grow in the fallout from Syria’s war [....]