BEIRUT: Three Lebanese people were wounded Wednesday in a dispute that escalated into an exchange of fire in the southern suburbs of Beirut.

Members from the Amhaz and Miqdad families exchanged fire in the wake of a quarrel that took place Tuesday night between the two families in Al-Hadi restaurant near Al-Wafa bakery, along Sayyed Hadi Nasrallah highway.

The clashes wounded two members from the Miqdad family and one from the Amhaz family. A security source told The Daily Star that Al-Hadi restaurant was destroyed during the clashes, attributing the dispute to personal reasons.

According to the source, the two families exchanged fire for around 10 minutes after which the Lebanese Army cordoned off the area and restored calm.

Similar incidents have occurred across the capital in recent months.

Armed clashes broke out August 24 between members from Hizbullah and  from the Association of Islamic Charitable Projects, a Sunni faction better known as al-Ahbash, in the Burj Abi Haidar neighborhood of Beirut.

The four-hour altercation claimed the lives of two Ahbash members and one from Hizbullah.

Following the incident, several calls have been made for Beirut to become a weapons-free city, a demand which went unheeded.

Fears of a deterioration in the security situation mounted amid media reports in recent months that various groups were training and arming amid mounting tensions over the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL).

Hizbullah has slammed the STL as “an Israeli project,” expecting the body would name members from the party in an impending indictment.

The Lebanese Army issued a statement in October in which it vowed to prevent any security repercussions of the indictment.

“[The Lebanese Army] will remain the guarantor of the unity and the stability of the nation, and [it] will not allow opportunists under any slogan, or circumstance, to mix between political disputes and the path of security and stability,” said the statement.