TRIPOLI, Lebanon – Three people were killed when fighting erupted overnight in the Lebanese city of Tripoli between members of the Alawite minority loyal to Syrian president Bashar al-Assad and members of the Sunni majority, witnesses and security officials said.
Rocket-propelled grenades and automatic rifles were used in the fighting in an Alawite enclave and surrounding Sunni neighbourhoods in the port city, 70km (45 miles) north of Beirut.
“The clashes peaked at dawn. The sound of gunfire is still echoing in the city,” a Lebanese security official said. The Lebanese state news agency said a soldier hit by sniper fire was among those killed. The army stated two soldiers were also wounded and reinforcements were being sent to the city, and that troops were “pursuing armed men to return the situation to normality”.
Troops had deployed in an area separating the Alawite enclave from the rest of the city. A Reuters correspondent in the city said sporadic fighting was taking place between groups of armed Sunnis and the army near a main Sunni district, adding most of Tripoli’s main intersections had been blocked with tyres that had been set alight.
The fighting underlines how sectarian tensions in Syria can spill over into neighbouring Lebanon.
A small Alawite minority is concentrated in Tripoli, a conservative Sunni city where many residents have been enraged by the Syrian government’s crackdown on the 14-month revolt against 42 years of rule by the Assad family and their Alawite establishment.
Syria’s Sunni majority is at the forefront of the uprising against Dr Assad, whose sect is an offshoot of Shia Islam. Lebanon’s government, headed by Najib Mikati, a wealthy former businessman and a personal friend of Dr Assad’s, has been among the few worldwide supportive of the Syrian government during the crackdown.
Mr Mikati, who is from Tripoli, met religious leaders in the city yesterday in an attempt to defuse the situation before meeting President Michel Suleiman in Beirut.
The two leaders then took part in an emergency meeting called by Mr Suleiman for a security cabinet comprised of ministers and army and security commanders.
The Syrian government has accused Islamist groups in Lebanon of backing insurgents fighting loyalist Syrian forces and of involvement in car bomb attacks on security targets. – (Reuters)