Endeavors Continue to Control Repercussions of Tall Kalakh Incident

Political and security efforts accelerated on Saturday to contain the repercussions of Friday's incident that killed a group of Lebanese Islamists from Tripoli in the Syrian border town of Tall Kalakh, As Safir daily said Saturday.

The army had been heavily deployed along the aptly named Syria Street dividing Bab al-Tabbaneh and Jabal Mohsen in Tripoli, in a bid to deter any security deterioration, the daily added.

Sources reported gunfire in Tripoli on Friday night between the mainly Sunni Bab al-Tabbaneh district and the neighboring Shiite district of Jabal Mohsen, on the backdrop of the incident.

Twenty-two men from the Lebanese city of Tripoli were killed on Friday in Tall Kalakh in an ambush carried out by Syrian regime forces, various media outlets said.

A security source told AFP that the victims were fighting alongside the Syrian opposition.

Coordinator of the al-Mustaqbal Movement in Tripoli, former MP Mustapha Alloush told Voice of Lebanon radio (100.5) Saturday: “Several men from Tripoli were killed in Syria, but the details are not clear yet. I went through the list of names which shows no members of the al-Mustaqbal Movement involved. However, any decision to defend oppressed people is a personal one.”

Moreover, political and security officials met late on Friday at the residence of al-Mustaqbal bloc MP Mohammed Kabbara.

They highlighted the significant role of the army and security apparatus to control Tripoli's security situation.

Kabbara told As Safir Saturday: “It is a pride for the city if the young men were killed in Syria. Their martyrdom should not be a reason for a security deterioration in Tripoli, which only serves the interests of those seeking evil.”

Bab al-Tabbaneh has been the scene of deadly clashes with Jabal Mohsen, which supports Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime.