Calm Restored in Tripoli after Clashes Leave over 20 Wounded

Calm has been restored in the northern city of Tripoli after the clashes of the past two days left over 20 wounded, including three soldiers, reported the daily An Nahar on Sunday.

A source from the Army Command told the daily that the situation is under control, noting that Friday’s clashes are the culmination of tensions that had been mounting in Tripoli since the assassination of senior Syrian security officials on July 18, among other factors.

The army had taken the decision to intervene to thwart any unrest should it erupt and the result has been the arrest of three individuals from the neighborhood of Bab al-Tabbaneh, it added.

Moreover, the source highlighted political and religious authorities’ determination to lift any protection off the transgressors.

“The developments demonstrated that the clash was a result of an individual dispute and not a decision to create battles in the city,” it noted.

“Fears that the security situation in Tripoli are unwarranted as long as political cover has been lifted off the gunmen and as long as the army has taken the decision to confront them,” it stressed.

Clashes erupted between mainly Alawite Jabal Mohsen and the majority Sunni area of al-Bakkar late on Friday after two young men were beaten and stabbed while on their way to their place of residence in Alawite Jabal Mohsen

The violence soon spread to the al-Rifa, al-Mankoubeen, al-Shaarani, al-Hara al-Barraniyeh, Souq al-Qamh and Syria street in Bab al-Tabbaneh.

The army intervened and fired back heavily at the sources of gunfire, which led to a decrease in the intensity of the clashes.

On July 18, an attack struck Syria’s National Security headquarters, killing Syrian President Bashar Assad's brother-in-law Assef Shawkat, Defense Minister Daoud Rajha, and crisis cell chief Hassan Turkmani.