Tripoli Clashes Intensify as Politicians’ Cease-Fire Pleas Fail

Local Editor

Two more deaths and 20 more injuries took place in Tripoli as clashes between Bab al-Tabbaneh and Jabal Mohsen intensified on Thursday evening.

Both axes fired mortars and used heavy machine-guns in the deadliest clashes since the Lebanese civil war. Shops in the city were closed on Thursday, streets deserted, and schools closed.
Security sources told Lebanese The Daily Star that all efforts to secure a cease-fire in the city failed, and contacts between Tripoli's politicians and leaders of the gunmen in Bab al-Tabbaneh had been severed.

Abdel-Latif Saleh, the Arab Democratic Party media official, stated that residents of Jabal Mohsen were only defending themselves and did not want to instigate a battle.
"People of Jabal Mohsen joined the battle Wednesday night after a group from Bab al-Tabbaneh stormed Jabal Mohsen. They stopped them from doing so," Saleh told a local radio station.
Moreover, the Lebanese Army said in a statement that three soldiers were wounded when a military barracks came under fire in Tripoli, adding that two other soldiers suffered serious wounds when gunfire was opened at their civilian car in Tripoli. It began deploying its units on Friday dawn from Jabal Mohsen to try to restore control of matters.

For his part, head of the Lebanese Itihad (Union) Party, former minister Abdel Rahim Mrad told al-Ahed news, "Events in the Tripoli front is somehow related to events in Syria," clarifying, "when we witness an advance by the Syrian Arab Army, gunmen attempt on opening fire in Tripoli after they lose weight in Syrian battles, taking revenge in Lebanon for their loss."
"It is time to place a military plan and search for a way to control the Lebanese-Syrian borderline. We cannot continue with the dissociation policy, and there should be military coordination between the Lebanese Army and the Syrian Army so militiamen would not sneak into borders," he added.

Tripoli clashes resulted in 22 deaths and around 200 injuries so far ever since the turmoil began on Sunday.

Source: News Agencies