Deadly Syria-Linked Clashes Hit Lebanon's Tripoli
Source: Yahoo News
At least five people were killed, including a child, and 43 wounded in clashes between pro- and anti-Damascus regime supporters in north Lebanon on Tuesday, security and army officials said.
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"The clashes are continuing," an army spokesman said in the early evening, while the military said in a statement that soldiers were "chasing gunmen and have seized a quantity of guns, bombs and ammunition."
The fighting erupted late on Monday in Tripoli, home to a Sunni community hostile to the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, and a community of Alawites, an offshoot of Shiite Islam to which the Syrian leader belongs. The clashes come days after a wave of kidnappings targeting Syrians in Lebanon, which lived under three decades of Syrian hegemony and remains deeply divided between supporters and opponents of Damascus.
Prime Minister Najib Mikati warned against the "absurd battle" rocking his hometown, Lebanon's second largest city. "We have repeatedly warned against being drawn into this blaze that has spread around Lebanon," he said of the violence in Syria. "But it is clear that several parties wanted to push Lebanon into the conflict."
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Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/syria-linked-fighting-rocks-lebanons-tripoli-000225118.html
Moving toward sectarian regional war?