Region | Lebanon
Fighting between rival factions in north Lebanon kills 4 more people
Heavy fighting in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli rages for a second day, killing more people, officials say.
- Agencies
- Published: 18:04 June 23, 2008
- Image Credit: AP
- Sunni fighters patrol the streets during clashes in the northern city of Tripoli, Lebanon on Monday.
Beirut: Heavy fighting between pro-and anti-government supporters in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli raged for a second day on Monday and officials said four more people had died overnight.
By afternoon, Lebanese troops and policemen began deploying in the tense areas.
The deaths brought to eight the number of those killed since violence broke out on Sunday in this city, 80 kilometers north of the capital. Also, 42 have been wounded.
The latest clashes began overnight, when government supporters from the Bab Al Tabaneh district and the Alawite opposition supporters in neighbouring Jabal Mohsen neighbourhood exchanged machinegun fire and rocket-propelled grenades, the officials said.
They spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to talk to the media.
Fighting eased by dawn, although residents said sporadic explosions persisted, and resumed later Monday.
The violence comes as Prime Minister Fuad Siniora is facing difficulties in forming a national unity Cabinet in line with an Arab-brokered deal that ended a political stalemate that had pushed Lebanon to the verge of a new civil war.
But it was not immediately possible to determine whether the Tripoli violence represents an isolated event or a residue of last month's clashes that preceded the deal.
That violence killed 81 and wounded over 200 people, and was Lebanon's worst since the 1975-90 conflict.
With the May fighting, the Tripoli deaths and those killed in the eastern Beka'a valley last week, the toll now stands at 92 dead and more than 250 people wounded.
The army command in northern Lebanon got rival groups in Tripoli to agree to have military and police deploy in tense areas later Monday, the state-run National News Agency said.
The report said any gunmen would be subjected to fire if they were seen in the streets after 4pm (1300 GMT).
The grand mufti of north Lebanon, Shaikh Malek Al Shaar, who has been mediating to end the violence since Sunday, told the private Al Jadeed television that both sides approved the deployment.
But shortly before the army began deploying, fighting resumed between Tripoli's factions.
At about 4:30pm (1330 GMT), dozens of soldiers and policemen in jeeps and armoured personnel carriers fanned out close to the scene of the fighting, which then subsided.
The same area had witnessed heavy fighting last month, when pro-government gunmen and militias loyal to the Hezbollah-led opposition clashed in different parts of the country.
The Lebanese deal, signed May 21 in Doha, Qatar, calls for the forming of a 30-member Cabinet in which Hezbollah and its allies have veto power over government decisions.
Former army chief, Michel Suleiman, was elected by parliament as a consensus president, and sworn in four days after the agreement.
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