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Hezbollah opposition supporters and government backers exchanged gunfire and threw stones Wednesday as a strike by the Shiite militant group paralyzed large parts of Beirut. The violence deepened tensions in a country already mired in a 17-month-old political crisis pitting the Iranian- and Syrian-backed Hezbollah against the government of Prime Minister Fuad Saniora. Labor unions had called for the strike after rejecting a last-minute pay raise offer by the government. Instead, it turned into a showdown between Hezbollah and the government. The clashes began when government and opposition supporters in a Muslim sector of Beirut exchanged insults and began throwing stones at each other. Witnesses said security forces intervened.