TRIPOLI, Lebanon: Snipers shot dead two men in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli yeserday as sectarian clashes linked to the conflict in neighbouring Syria broke out, a security official said.
The men, both civilians, died in separate shootings in two different districts of Tripoli — one populated by Alawites and the other by Sunni Muslims, the official said on condition of anonymity.
Their deaths came four days after Syrian forces killed 22 men from Tripoli who had crossed into the strife-torn country to fight alongside rebels trying to oust the regime of President Bashar Al Assad.
Sectarian tensions have mounted over the Syrian uprising, with intermittent clashes pitting Sunni districts of Tripoli against Alawite areas in the past two days.
Kiosk owner Mohammed Ibrahim, 65, was killed in Jabal Mohsen district, the majority of whose population is Alawite, the same religious community to which Assad belongs, according to the security official.
“The bullet that killed him was fired from the Qubbeh area,” most of whose residents are Sunnis and sympathise with the revolt against Assad, he added.
The other man, 26-year-old Abdel Rahman Nassouh, was fatally shot in Bab Al Tebbaneh, a Sunni neighbourhood, by sniper fire from Jabal Mohsen, the source added.
Yesterday’s violence also wounded 12 people — two in Jabal Mohsen and 10 in Bab Al Tebbaneh — impoverished rival neighbourhoods separated by Syria Street.
According to the security official, the Lebanese army has deployed in the area. “Troops have started to respond to the sources of gunfire,” he said.
The rising tensions in Tripoli were exacerbated by last week’s killings in Syria of 21 Lebanese and one Palestinian from the city, all of them young men.
AFP
