4 Gunmen Arrested as Life Goes Back to Normal in Tripoli's Safe Areas

There was “total calm” in the northern city of Tripoli on Wednesday after several days of deadly gunbattles, the state-run National News Agency reported, as the Lebanese army arrested four gunmen in its latest sweep on the fighters.

Schools, universities and shops reopened in the city's safer areas except for the hotspots, NNA said.

The calm neighborhoods also witnessed busy traffic, it said.

Army units, using bulldozers, began to remove barricades and earth mounds erected by the fighters, the agency added.

The military command said in a communique that soldiers arrested four armed men for engaging in sniper attacks, assaulting the army and civilians, and for carrying arms and ammunition.

It identified them as Ahmed Yehya Saoud, Jaafar Hussein Tamer, Ahmed Mohammed Riyad al-Hajj and Salah Abdul Hamid Mohammed.

Military units spread widely in major roads and in secondary streets on Tuesday afternoon.

The army carried out patrols and raids in search for militants, and set up checkpoints to inspect vehicles and the IDs of drivers.

Hundreds of policemen from different parts of Lebanon have been sent to Tripoli to help improve security, working under the army's command.

The army has been authorized to take charge of security in Tripoli for six months following the deadly sectarian clashes by rival sides stemming from the civil war in neighboring Syria.

The main gunbattles lie between the impoverished neighborhoods of Bab al-Tabbaneh, which is majority Sunni, and Jabal Mohsen, whose residents are from Syrian President Bashar Assad's Alawite sect.