Clashes kill two in Lebanon’s Tripoli

Beirut: At least two people were killed and six others wounded in running gun battles in the flashpoint northern Lebanese city of Tripoli, a security source told AFP on Sunday.

The source identified the dead as 22-year-old Mohammad Yousuf, from the Alawite Jebel Mohsin area, and a 13-year-old boy from the neighbouring Sunni area of Bab Al Tebbaneh.

One person was wounded in Jebel Mohsin and five others were wounded in Bab Al Tebbaneh, the source said.

“Lebanese military forces are in the area and responding to the sources of gunfire,” he added.

The largely Sunni city is home to a small community of Alawites, an offshoot of Shiite sect to which Syrian President Bashar Al Assad belongs.

Violence has regularly broken out between the two communities as the conflict in neighbouring Syria - pitting Al Assad’s regime against a Sunni-led opposition - raises tensions.

The fighting erupted as Syrian troops launched an assault against the rebel stronghold of Qusayr, in Syria’s central province of Homs.