Tensions High in Tripoli after 17 Lebanese Islamists Killed in Syria Ambush
At least 17 Lebanese Islamists were killed in Syria on Friday as they were infiltrating the country, reported various media outlets.
Agence France Presse said that 17 Lebanese Sunni fighters were killed in Syria's Tal Kalakh border area in an ambush carried out by regime forces.
A security source told AFP that the victims were fighting alongside the Syrian opposition.
Sky News had said that 14 Lebanese people were killed as they were trying to enter Syria.
Meanwhile, MTV said that the Islamists hail from the northern city of Tripoli and nearby areas.
It added that tensions were high and gunfire could be heard in the Bab al-Tabbaneh neighborhood in Tripoli in light of the death of two youths from the Srour family in the ambush.
Later on Friday, MTV said a rocket-propelled grenade was fired into the air, adding that security forces went on alert to contain the situation.
“Sniper fire targeted (the rival Alawite district of) Jabal Mohsen as an Energa-type grenade hit Syria Street,” which separates the two neighborhoods, OTV meanwhile reported, saying ambulance sirens were being heard in the northern city.
Radio Voice of Lebanon(100.5) said the ambush left 20 Lebanese men dead, adding that they hail from Akkar's Fnaideq and Tripoli's Bab al-Tabbaneh and al-Mankoubin.
"Gunfire was heard in al-Qobbeh amid the deployment of the army which went on alert in Bab al-Tabbaneh and Tripoli's suburbs," the radio station said.
"Young Islamists from different parts of the city left Tripoli this morning (Friday) and were killed in an ambush in Tal Kalakh by regime forces," an Islamist leader in the city told AFP.
"According to our information, they were summarily executed and not killed in combat," he said.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, for its part, reported that a group of 30 rebels "were caught in an ambush by government troops in the area of Tal Sarin near the town of Tal Kalakh."
"It is unknown if they are being held prisoner or were killed," the monitoring group said.
Bab al-Tabbaneh has been the scene of deadly clashes with the neighboring Alawite district of Jabal Mohsen, which supports the Assad regime.
Source: Agence France Presse, Naharnet
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