Shahhal Cancels Tripoli Protest, Averting Showdown with Army
Salafist cleric Dai al-Islam al-Shahhal canceled on Friday a sit-in that he had called for in the northern city of Tripoli in protest against the army’s crackdown on gunmen, averting a showdown with the military.
Shahhal said that he would replace the protest with prayers at the Grand Mansouri Mosque.
There were fears on Friday that the protest would spiral out of control, a day after skirmishes between the army and angry gunmen, which sources said left a soldier dead.
The army did not confirm the report late Thursday but urged “everyone to cooperate with the army's measures … which aim at restoring security and stability in the city.”
Several suspects were arrested, it said in a communique.
Some of the Sunni gunmen opened fire on army patrols on Thursday to protest raids carried out across Tripoli to arrest fighters, who engaged in deadly gunbattles with their rivals from the Alawite sect.
Al-Shahhal's announcement that he had canceled the protest was seen as a triumph for contacts among officials aimed at sparing the city a major escalation.
But al-Shahhal accused the army of being biased, telling LBCI that some of its officers were bypassing the law.
The latest fighting comes after authorities decided on Monday to place Tripoli under army control for six months after a wave of sectarian killings linked to Syria's war left scores of casualties.
Residents of the Sunni district of Bab al-Tabbaneh had been locked in fighting with people in the neighboring Alawite district of Jabal Mohsen since Saturday.
Tensions between the neighborhoods date back to Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil war but have been exacerbated by the conflict across the border in Syria, where Alawite President Bashar Assad is battling a Sunni-led uprising.
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