Beirut: Lebanese police officials say clashes between supporters and opponents of the Syrian government have left two people dead in the northern city of Tripoli.
The officials said the guard of a Sunni mosque and a 16-year-old youth were killed in Saturday’s clashes. They said children were stuck in classrooms in three schools, unable to move because of the heavy gunfire. The officials requested anonymity in line with police regulations.
Sectarian clashes related to the Syrian civil war often flare in Tripoli, in particular between two impoverished neighbourhoods that back opposite sides. The Bab Tabbaneh district is largely Sunni Muslim, as are Syria’s rebels fighting against Al Assad’s rule.
Residents of the Jabal Mohsen neighbourhood are mostly of the Alawite sect to which Al Assad belongs. Meanwhile, Lebanese troops found and disarmed three rockets primed for use in a Sunni Muslim enclave of the mainly Shiite Bekaa valley near the Syrian border, the army said on Saturday.
The Al Nahar newspaper said the military-grade Grad rockets, which were found in the Sunni village of Al Qaa, were aimed at nearby Hermel, a stronghold of Hezbollah.
The army said military police had opened an investigation.
The conflict in neighbouring Syria has inflamed sectarian tensions in Lebanon, with Hezbollah sending fighters to back President Bashar Al Assad’s forces and many Sunnis offering sympathy or support to the rebels.
Al Qaa and the nearby town of Arsal have been key transit points for arms smuggling by the rebels and for refugees fleeing the fighting.
But the traffic has slowed in recent weeks following a Syrian army offensive on the other side of the border in which it has recaptured a string of towns from the rebels.
