Clashes Renew in Tripoli as City Leaders Urge Ceasefire, Slam Attacks on Army

Armed clashes renewed on Sunday afternoon in Tripoli, shattering a cautious calm that had engulfed the city since dawn, as a number of MPs, Muslim clerics and figures called for a ceasefire and rejected attacks on the army.

“Clashes have escalated between Bab al-Tabbaneh and Jabal Mohsen and the army is shooting at the sources of gunfire,” al-Jadeed television reported in the evening.

“Three shells fell on the vegetable market-Omari Street frontier in Tripoli amid heavy gunfire,” it said.

In the afternoon, Voice of Lebanon radio (100.5) said “clashes have renewed in Baal al-Darawish and Bab al-Tabbaneh.”

Meanwhile, Meanwhile, Tripoli's leaders and figures held a meeting at MP Mohammed Kabbara's residence and issued a statement stressing “the need to seek pacification, act wisely and exert efforts to reach an immediate ceasefire.”

They said a truce would “deprive those plotting against the city of a chance to drag it into a meaningless battle that is not in anyone's interest.”

The meeting was attended by Social Affairs Minister Rashid Derbas, Mustaqbal bloc MPs Kabbara, Samir al-Jisr, Moein al-Merehbi and Khaled al-Daher; Muslim clerics Salem al-Rafehi, Zakaria al-Masri, Nabil Rahim and Khaled al-Sayyed; and the Jamaa Islamiya's political official in the North Hasan Khayyal.

“Entire Tripoli wants to live under the authority of the state, safely and securely, but there must be justice, fairness and balance among everyone, and it rejects that the city's sons be dragged into a confrontation with the army and security forces,” the conferees said.

They also stressed “the need to restore confidence between the city's sons and military and security institutions, topped by the Lebanese Army, and to conduct the necessary investigations into reports about summary executions of a number of wanted men,” urging security forces to “reevaluate the taken measures and not to use excessive force.”

The conferees condemned “any attack on the Lebanese Army,” underlining that “restoring confidence in security forces would reflect positively on Tripoli and its security and stability.”

The lawmakers and leaders also called for “bringing to justice all the security violators and outlaws, starting with those involved in carrying out the terrorist bombings that targeted al-Taqwa and al-Salam mosques.”

They revealed that “after the cabinet wins the vote of confidence, a Tripoli delegation will visit the three presidents and relevant officials to put them in the picture of the events.”

Earlier on Sunday, a soldier was killed in a grenade attack on the army in Tripoli, raising to 13 the death toll from the latest round of clashes between the rival districts of Bab al-Tabbaneh and Jabal Mohsen.

The army command said in a communique issued on Sunday that a “grenade attack on an army personnel carrier in al-Mallouleh area at 9:30 p.m. killed a soldier.”

The statement stressed that the army is still responding to the sources of fire in the northern city.

Battles subsided on Sunday at dawn after a rough night in the city despite intermittent sniper gunshots operating around Syria street, which separates the Alawite enclave of Jabal Mohsen from the Sunni district of Bab al-Tabbaneh.

President Michel Suleiman expressed regret on Sunday over the victims of the clashes in Tripoli.

He stressed “on the importance of being aware amid this critical stage that Lebanon and the Lebanese should be dissociated from its negative repercussions.”

Suleiman reiterated calls from “consensus and dialogue... to surpass this stage safely.”

The state-run National News Agency reported that the clashes injured around 57 people.

Bab al-Tabbaneh residents staged demonstrations on Saturday night to protest the ongoing situation in the city.

The latest fighting broke out on Thursday after a Sunni man was killed by unknown gunmen on a motorbike in central Tripoli.

But tensions between the districts have run high for decades, only increasing with the outbreak of the conflict in Syria in March 2011, where Alawite President Bashar Assad faces a Sunni-dominated uprising.

The Bab al-Tabbaneh neighborhood backs the revolt, while residents in Jabal Mohsen support the Syrian regime.

The army has deployed in the city, arresting several people overnight and responding to sources of fire.

The violence between two districts of the city caused local schools to close and cut traffic flow in the city to a trickle.