Pro- and Anti-Assad Regime Sit-ins in Tripoli Amid Heavy Security
Pro- and anti-Syrian regime sit-ins were held by scores of protestors in different districts of the northern city of Tripoli on Friday as the army and security forces took strong measures to prevent clashes.
Interior Minister Marwan Charbel has ordered security forces to take “extraordinary measures.” He told An Nahar daily that he ordered the measures after he was informed that several sit-ins were planned to protest Syrian President Bashar Assad’s crackdown on protestors.
Scores of protestors amassed outside several of the city’s mosques after prayers. Television footage showed dozens of demonstrators chanting slogans in favor of Assad while other protestors in other areas calling on the Syrian president to introduce reform and stop the brutal crackdown.
“I have asked security officials in Tripoli to contain the demonstration in a certain area in order not to cause trouble,” Charbel said.
The army and the Internal Security Forces have made a heavy deployment in the city to avoid a recurrence of the clashes that left seven people dead last Friday.
The gunfight erupted between mainly Sunni Bab al-Tabbaneh and the Alawite Jabal Mohsen following pro-Syrian people rallies in Tripoli.
Tripoli Mufti Sheikh Malek al-Shaar told An Nahar that he rejects demonstrations and marches. “They are useless because they won’t reach any objective.”
The Imam of a mosque in Bab al-Tabbaneh, Sheikh Mazen al-Mohammed, also told al-Akhbar newspaper that the district’s officials have “agreed to prevent demonstrations to spare the city any negative repercussions.”
“Any popular gathering would be prevented (from taking place) through all means out of keenness on the city,” al-Mohammed said.
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