Child Killed in Renewed Tripoli Sniper Activity after Jabal Mohsen Man Shot Dead

An 11-year-old boy was killed on Wednesday afternoon as intense sniper activity was recorded in the northern city of Tripoli.

The clashes renewed after a resident from the Jabal Mohsen neighborhood was killed when unknown assailants opened fire at him near al-Ridani bakery in the northern city, according to the state-run National News Agency.

Hassan Mazloum was attacked with gunshots which made him lose control of the vehicle at the Abu Ali roundabout in Tripoli, and run over a woman and her child.

"Mazloum was innocent,” Arab Democratic Party spokesman Abdul Latif Saleh told al-Jadeed television.

"An employee of the city council was shot dead by two men on a motorbike who chased his car as he drove home after work," a security source told Agence France Presse.

"The car went out of control after the shooting, and crashed into a vegetable cart. A woman was standing there with her child. Both were wounded, and she died of her injuries soon afterwards," he elaborated.

"The son's hand was broken, as was the cart vendor's leg."

Hours after the shooting, clashes erupted on the dividing line between the city's rival Bab al-Tabbaneh and Jabal Mohsen districts.

A rocket killed an 11-year-old boy and wounded another person in Bab al-Tebbaneh, the security source said.

Several media reports identified the boy as Ahmed al-Sayyed, noting that he died near Khalil al-Rahman mosque in the Bab al-Tabbaneh neighborhood in the city.

"Mahmoud Fakhreddine was wounded in the head by sniper fire," the NNA said, adding that he was transferred to a hospital for treatment.

Meanwhile, a group of young men blocked the road in the Baddawi area, and called on Tripoli residents not to take the highway because of the intense sniper activity.

Radio Voice of Lebanon (93.3)added that a bomb was hurled on the Syria street in Tripoli as sniper activity was recorded on the Bazar axes.

"Gunshots were also heard on Syria street that separates the rival neighborhoods of Jabal Mohsen and Bab al-Tabbaneh, according to the same source.

The relatives of the victims in the double blast that targeted two mosques last summer issued a statement denouncing any attack against their “Alawite partners in the country.”

"We praise the army and we call on troops to probe any attack in the city and try those involved in them,” they added,

"We will not allow anyone to tarnish our cause with small acts here and there that are rejected by our religious beliefs.”

Following Wednesday's escalation of security events, troops patrolled in al-Beddawi area in Tripoli, according to the NNA.