Tripoli Clashes Intensify in the Evening as Frontiers Leaders Threaten Jabal Mohsen with an 'Unprecedented Night'
Several people were wounded as clashes renewed on Friday evening between the rival Tripoli neighborhoods of Jabal Mohsen and Bab al-Tabbaneh after relative calm during the day.
And as the army deployed in Jabal Mohsen, the leaders of Bab al-Tabbaneh's fighting frontiers rejected the entry of the army to their district before the “arrest” of Arab Democratic Party secretary-general Rifaat Eid.
The National News Agency said sniper activity resumed all frontiers in the evening, leaving two people wounded in the al-Shaarani-Hariri Project area.
Sniper fire wounded a Palestinian boy from the Abboura family as he was leaving his school in al-Beddawi refugee camp, NNA said.
Meanwhile, Lebanese citizen Ahmed Fawwal received three gunshots while passing on al-Mallouleh Bridge as Ibrahim al-Abboud was injured in al-Baqqar.
In the al-Mankoubin area, Mohammed al-Mir was psychologically traumatized when he came under gunfire as Mohammed Merhi was wounded in the legs at the Abu Ali roundabout.
On the political front, LBCI television said the leaders of the fighting frontiers failed to reach an agreement on a ceasefire during a meeting at the Harba Mosque, as some of al-Qobbeh's leaders refused the agreement terms and the deployment of the army in their area “before the issuance of an arrest warrant for Rifaat Eid.”
In a statement, the leaders of the frontiers of al-Riva, al-Mankoubin, al-Shaarani, al-Baqqar and Bab al-Tabbaneh called on Jabal Mohsen's residents to evacuate the women and children and to “stop obeying the butcher Rifaat Eid, the son of the butcher Ali Eid,” warning that Jabal Mohsen “will witness an unprecedented night.”
The cautious calm during the day was occasionally violated by intermittent gunfire as a rocket hit Naji Center in Azmi street, causing only material damage.
A meeting chaired by al-Mustaqbal bloc head MP Fouad Saniora was held on Friday afternoon at the Center House with the participation of Tripoli's MPs.
The lawmakers announced after the talks that they are keen on preserving religious coexistence in the northern city, noting that both the residents of Jabal Mohsen and Bab al-Tabbaneh “are one, and have the same rights and duties.”
"We reject the use of illegal weapons and transforming the city into a passage for local and regional political messages,” al-Mustaqbal MP Samir al-Jisr stated after the meeting.
"We call on the Public Prosecution in the North to sue those threatening to bomb the city and terrorizing its people.”
The MPs also urged President Michel Suleiman, “as the legal guardian of the constitutions and the commander-in-chief of the armed forces," to ask the army to "act firmly and fairly" with all perpetrators, and to safeguard the stability in Tripoli and strengthen confidence in the military institution."
Thursday was the bloodiest day yet in the clashes, with at least 11 people killed in 24 hours.
The casualty toll from the clashes that erupted on Sunday has hit 23 dead and more than 200 wounded.
Elsewhere in the city of 500,000 people, life continued as normal during the day to some extent, but with traffic lighter than usual and schools closed but most shops still open.
Troops have been deployed across the city since the outbreak, but this has failed to halt the fighting.
The Sunni district of Bab al-Tabbaneh borders the Alawite Jabal Mohsen area, and gunmen in the two areas regularly open fire on each other. Violence has regularly broken out between the two communities as the conflict in Syria -- pitting a Sunni-led opposition against the Alawite regime -- raises tensions.
The latest violence began as the Syrian regime launched a withering assault on the rebel stronghold of Qusayr, near the border with Lebanon.
Hizbullah has been sending fighters across the border to help Syrian forces attack Qusayr.
In 1985, the Syrian army clashed with Sunni groups in Tripoli, and bombarded areas of the city, during Lebanon's civil war.
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