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7 KILLED AS ASSAD SUPPORTERS, OPPONENTS FIGHT IN LEBANESE CITY
March 21, 2014 - 21:23 AMT
PanARMENIAN.Net - Seven people were killed in the northern Lebanese
city of Tripoli on Friday, March 21, in fighting between supporters
and opponents of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, security and
medical sources said, according to Reuters.
Tripoli, like much of Lebanon, is divided along sectarian lines and
is only 30 miles from the Syrian border. Its majority Sunni Muslims,
who back the Syrian rebels, often clash with the minority from Assad's
Alawite sect.
Four civilians, including an elderly man, were shot dead by snipers
on Friday, they said. Eleven others were wounded.
Three people who were wounded in earlier clashes died, including two
gunmen who were hit in overnight clashes between fighters from the
Sunni district of Bab al-Tabbaneh and the Alawite neighborhood of
Jebel Mohsen, the sources said.
Lebanon's population is deeply divided over the Syrian war. Shi'ite
militant and political movement Hezbollah and its allies support
Assad while many of the country's Sunnis back the revolt.
Tripoli's Sunnis and Alawites have clashed sporadically for decades
but the Syrian conflict has worsened tensions, with each side accusing
the other of using the city as a base for sending fighters and weapons
in and out of Syria.
Lebanon's parliament gave a newly-formed cabinet a vote of confidence
on Thursday, ending almost a year of political deadlock.
But the country suffers regular car bombings and rocket attacks,
as well as incursions by the Syrian army in pursuit of rebels who
move across the border.
From: A. Papazian
March 21, 2014 - 21:23 AMT
PanARMENIAN.Net - Seven people were killed in the northern Lebanese
city of Tripoli on Friday, March 21, in fighting between supporters
and opponents of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, security and
medical sources said, according to Reuters.
Tripoli, like much of Lebanon, is divided along sectarian lines and
is only 30 miles from the Syrian border. Its majority Sunni Muslims,
who back the Syrian rebels, often clash with the minority from Assad's
Alawite sect.
Four civilians, including an elderly man, were shot dead by snipers
on Friday, they said. Eleven others were wounded.
Three people who were wounded in earlier clashes died, including two
gunmen who were hit in overnight clashes between fighters from the
Sunni district of Bab al-Tabbaneh and the Alawite neighborhood of
Jebel Mohsen, the sources said.
Lebanon's population is deeply divided over the Syrian war. Shi'ite
militant and political movement Hezbollah and its allies support
Assad while many of the country's Sunnis back the revolt.
Tripoli's Sunnis and Alawites have clashed sporadically for decades
but the Syrian conflict has worsened tensions, with each side accusing
the other of using the city as a base for sending fighters and weapons
in and out of Syria.
Lebanon's parliament gave a newly-formed cabinet a vote of confidence
on Thursday, ending almost a year of political deadlock.
But the country suffers regular car bombings and rocket attacks,
as well as incursions by the Syrian army in pursuit of rebels who
move across the border.
From: A. Papazian