Residents in two rival neighbourhoods of Tripoli, a city in northern Lebanon, have spent the past two nights in shelters, sitting out clashes between supporters and oppponents of the Syrian regime They now fear that the neighbouring 14-month uprising might be spilling over into their country.
"I have great fears. The gunmen are in the streets and have a lot of weapons in their hands. The situation is not good," Fadwa al-Shaar, a resident of Bab al-Tabbneh neighbourhood, told dpa after experiencing heavy clashes on Sunday. The streets here are deserted except for gunmen wearing sleeveless T-shirts and headbands, bearing the message "God is Great."
On Sunday, fighting broke out between Bab al-Tabbneh, a mainly Sunni neighbourhood which backs the Syrian opposition in its uprising against Damascus, and the Alawite-dominated Jabal Mohsen area, which strongly supports al-Assad. Six people were killed in the fighting, including a Lebanese soldier, and 50 were wounded according to hospital sources.
Bullet-riddled buildings, with gaping holes from rocket-propelled grenades, bore testimony to the fresh round of violence that hit the already tense area. Lebanese troops were heavily deployed at the entrances to the two neighbourhoods, in an attempt to stop the fighting and restore calm. But tension remained high within each area, with gunmen and weapons everywhere.
A group of young men, aged around 18 to 20, gathered in one street of Bab al-Tabbaneh, discussing the fresh violence. "We were born during the war and we will die in a war with those Syrian agents," Ahmed, a gunman, said, pointing his finger towards the hilltop neighbourhood of Jabal Mohsen. The battles between these rival neighbourhoods are nothing new.
In May 2008, heavy fighting killed dozens of people and wounded scores. Since then, sporadic outbursts were contained by army interventions. The clashes in northern Lebanon, close to the Syrian border, reflect the ease with which the crisis in Syria raises tensions among its neighbours. The Lebanese people are divided over the anti-Assad uprising that began in March 2011, and has killed more than 12,000 people according to estimates by Syrian activists.
The Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah, which heads the government with other pro-Syrian parties, supports al-Assad's regime, while Muslim Sunnis and followers of former premier Saad Hariri support the opposition. In Tripoli, army forces were deployed to monitor the street dividing the two rival neighbourhoods, referred to as Syria Street for its large Alawite population. Despite their presence, rattling gunfire occasionally peppered the air.
"We are here to stop the fighting and return life to normal," said an army officer who requested anonymity. Fighting started after the Lebanese authorities arrested Sunni extremist Shadi al-Mawlawi in the port city on Saturday, for allegedly contacting a terrorist organisation. His arrest drew strong condemnation from Tripoli's Islamists, who said al-Mawlawi had been arrested because he had been helping Syrian refugees who had escaped the violence at home.
Since then, al-Mawlawi's followers have blocked Tripoli's main northern and southern entrance roads, staging a sit-in at the southern entrance connecting the city to the rest of Lebanon. Syrian authorities have repeatedly charged that arms and fighters are being smuggled in from northern Lebanon to help the rebels fighting to overthrow al-Assad. Both factions in Tripoli are accusing each other of having started the recent clashes.
"The Syrian regime is trying to shift the internal conflict to new fronts like Lebanon, in order to cover up its crimes," charged Mouin al-Merhebi, a member of Hariri's Sunni parliamentary bloc. Rifaat Eid, who head the pro-Assad Alawite Arab Democratic Party, insisted to dpa that gunmen in Bab al-Tabbneh had started the clashes. On both sides, meanwhile, Tripoli's residents are nervously eyeing the limited effect of a shaky internationally-brokered April 12 cease-fire, in constant fear that Syria's unrest is reaching their doorsteps.
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