Ya Libnan

2 killed in northern Lebanon in spillover from Syria war

Share:

tripoli lebanon map

Two people died in Lebanon’s northern city of Tripoli on Monday, in fighting between supporters and opponents of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and the Lebanese army, as violence continues to spill over from the civil war next door.

Tripoli, a city that, like much of Lebanon, is divided along sectarian lines, is only 30 miles (48 km) from the Syrian border and its majority Sunni Muslims, who back the Syrian rebels, have often clashed with the minority from Assad’s Alawite sect.

The two dead were from the Sunni district of Bab al-Tabbaneh, where gunmen clashed with the Lebanese army, which has taken on both sides in the fighting. A soldier and twelve people from the area were wounded, security and medical sources said.

In the nearby Alawite neighborhood of Jebel Mohsen, which the army entered on Sunday as part of an increased presence throughout the city, another resident was wounded, the sources said.

Lebanon’s population is deeply divided over the Syrian war, with Shi’ite Islamist guerrilla and political movement Hezbollah and its allies supporting Assad and the country’s Sunni-led opposition bloc, March 14, backing the revolt.

Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah called on Monday for the army to take full control of Tripoli, as government officials discussed a security plan for the restive city.

“This is the only solution: to summon the Lebanese army and the security forces and to cooperate with them,” Nasrallah said in a televised speech in which he suggested that the alternative was allowing al Qaeda-linked Syrian rebel militia to operate in the city.

Nasrallah has blamed such factions for attacks on his Iranian-backed group’s Beirut base and other Shi’ite areas in Lebanon.

Members of Tripoli’s Sunni Muslim and Alawite sects have clashed on-and-off for decades and the Syrian conflict has worsened the tensions, with each side accusing the other of using the city as a base for sending fighters and weapons in and out of Syria.

In August, two car bombs at Sunni mosques in Tripoli killed 42 people, and wounded hundreds.

The latest Tripoli violence, which broke out last Tuesday, has killed 17 people and wounded more than 100.

Reuters

Share:

Comments

6 responses to “2 killed in northern Lebanon in spillover from Syria war”

  1. 5thDrawer Avatar
    5thDrawer

    WOW. Did somebody ‘out there’ finally hear about the week-old war going on in Tripoli??
    It began the previous Sunday … try to be accurate, ok?
    So, we read the local news ….. which is usually late …
    According to the ‘Daily Star’, there are 16 dead, and 90 wounded …. and they NEVER list the women.
    Or small kids – most of whom are becoming basket-cases anyway with all the noise.
    It’s a ‘Mini-Syria’. Try to make a run to the store for water … the Shabiha have snipers all over.

    Ah yes, Charbel gave them 48 hours … more ….

    1. dateam Avatar
      dateam

      The former general director of Lebanon’s Internal Security Forces (ISF), Ashraf Rifi, is spending his retirement gathering Tripoli’s street fighters into a more formidable militia intended to defend the Sunni sect.

      “Ahrar Tripoli” – that’s the name of a new militia under construction in the northern city of Tripoli, led by former ISF commander Rifi, who seeks to unite the various bands of fighters under the banner of protecting the Sunni sect.

      Sources tell Al-Akhbar that Rifi started working on this project shortly after his retirement on 1 April 2013, with Saudi funding and under the direct supervision of the kingdom’s intelligence chief, Bandar bin Sultan, sparking the ire of many Future Party competitors who fear the former police chief being anointed the next prime minister.

      Local sources in Tripoli insist that all the hot spots in the city are those under the influence of Rifi, while others have remained relatively quiet.

      The first sign of tensions over Rifi’s growing prominence came last September 10, when his men clashed with another group loyal to Saad Hariri’s security adviser, retired Col. Amid Hammoud. The fighting only ended after the mediation of yet another former army officer at the request of Hariri.

      Nevertheless, Rifi continued his efforts to build up a united Sunni militia, with Hammoud agreeing to coordinate with the former commander, while at the same time working behind the scenes to undermine Rifi’s bid to control Tripoli’s fighters.

      Regarding the ongoing battles between Sunni Bab al-Tabbaneh and Alawi Jabal Mohsen, sources say that Rifi is unhappy with Tripoli’s Future MPs, because they are the ones responsible for weakening the party in the city. He is even reported to have called for their replacement by representatives “who will not surrender the city’s honor and dignity.”

      The sources relay that Rifi was against any ceasefire in the latest round of fighting in Tripoli, hoping “to teach [Alawi leader] Rifaat Eid a lesson he will not forget.” It is for this reason that Rifi refused to participate in the usual meetings held at MP Mohammed Kabbara’s house to defuse the crisis.

      Instead, Al-Akhbar learned that he held a series of meetings with local fighters, promising to provide them with ammunition to continue the fight and win their loyalty. In addition to winning over a number of experienced fighters who are active on the Bab al-Tabbaneh front, he has made contacts with the hardline Salafi supporters of Sheikh Husam al-Sayyadi.

      Rifi’s attempts to lure some of the local commanders loyal to Prime Minister Najib Mikati have yet to succeed. Local sources in Tripoli insist that all the hot spots in the city are those under the influence of Rifi, while others have remained relatively quiet.

      1. 5thDrawer Avatar
        5thDrawer

        ‘Local scources’ seem not to want ‘all’ known, either. Some things never hit ‘the news’, for sure. Somebody needs to ‘call out’ all the little dictators and ‘block captains’ and 3-man sniper gangs who do whatever they wish, and set-up wherever they wish … even taking over private homes and terrorizing the women and children in them ….
        Ask about shootings in a hospital, for instance … ‘nursing shortage’ grows.
        Having been largely ignored by Beirut, and any concept of ‘Central Governing’ for many years, all the little ‘fiefs’ – of which both Beirut and Tripoli (let alone the rest of the ‘country’) are COLLECTIONS OF – The lovely idea of ONE LEBANON failed miserably.
        It’s all ‘turf wars’ of ‘name families’ … ‘Protection’ of the tribes … that MALE DOMINANT IDIOCY that simply won’t quit … terrorizing and killing women and children ad infinitum. Creating a ‘next generation’ of ‘fighting cocks’ from the male children, when the protection of a female is ONLY because she’s viewed as ‘a possession’.
        ‘Hot Spots’ are wherever there are flare-ups. The gangs move with impunity through all the ‘peaceful’ zones … in fact, there are none.
        City ‘honour and dignity’??? (hearty bitter laugh)

        ON TOP OF THAT …. it’s the reason the refugees were not handled properly right from the beginning. Now EVERYONE is at risk from a number of ‘war-diseases’ and those citizens who were on the poverty line even before that plunged under it.
        How WELL everyone has been FU&^%ED by BASHAR. Indeed.
        But they were never ‘together’ in the first place – with one thought -‘LEBANON’.

  2. 5thDrawer Avatar
    5thDrawer

    WOW. Did somebody ‘out there’ finally hear about the week-old war going on there??

    1. dateam Avatar
      dateam

      The former general director of Lebanon’s Internal Security Forces (ISF), Ashraf Rifi, is spending his retirement gathering Tripoli’s street fighters into a more formidable militia intended to defend the Sunni sect.

      “Ahrar Tripoli” – that’s the name of a new militia under construction in the northern city of Tripoli, led by former ISF commander Rifi, who seeks to unite the various bands of fighters under the banner of protecting the Sunni sect.

      Sources tell Al-Akhbar that Rifi started working on this project shortly after his retirement on 1 April 2013, with Saudi funding and under the direct supervision of the kingdom’s intelligence chief, Bandar bin Sultan, sparking the ire of many Future Party competitors who fear the former police chief being anointed the next prime minister.

      Local sources in Tripoli insist that all the hot spots in the city are those under the influence of Rifi, while others have remained relatively quiet.

      The first sign of tensions over Rifi’s growing prominence came last September 10, when his men clashed with another group loyal to Saad Hariri’s security adviser, retired Col. Amid Hammoud. The fighting only ended after the mediation of yet another former army officer at the request of Hariri.

      Nevertheless, Rifi continued his efforts to build up a united Sunni militia, with Hammoud agreeing to coordinate with the former commander, while at the same time working behind the scenes to undermine Rifi’s bid to control Tripoli’s fighters.

      Regarding the ongoing battles between Sunni Bab al-Tabbaneh and Alawi Jabal Mohsen, sources say that Rifi is unhappy with Tripoli’s Future MPs, because they are the ones responsible for weakening the party in the city. He is even reported to have called for their replacement by representatives “who will not surrender the city’s honor and dignity.”

      The sources relay that Rifi was against any ceasefire in the latest round of fighting in Tripoli, hoping “to teach [Alawi leader] Rifaat Eid a lesson he will not forget.” It is for this reason that Rifi refused to participate in the usual meetings held at MP Mohammed Kabbara’s house to defuse the crisis.

      Instead, Al-Akhbar learned that he held a series of meetings with local fighters, promising to provide them with ammunition to continue the fight and win their loyalty. In addition to winning over a number of experienced fighters who are active on the Bab al-Tabbaneh front, he has made contacts with the hardline Salafi supporters of Sheikh Husam al-Sayyadi.

      Rifi’s attempts to lure some of the local commanders loyal to Prime Minister Najib Mikati have yet to succeed. Local sources in Tripoli insist that all the hot spots in the city are those under the influence of Rifi, while others have remained relatively quiet.

      1. 5thDrawer Avatar
        5thDrawer

        ‘Local scources’ seem not to want ‘all’ known, either. Some things never hit ‘the news’, for sure. Somebody needs to ‘call out’ all the little dictators and ‘block captains’ and 3-man sniper gangs who do whatever they wish, and set-up wherever they wish … even taking over private homes and terrorizing the women and children in them ….
        Ask about shootings in a hospital, for instance … ‘nursing shortage’ grows.
        Having been largely ignored by Beirut, and any concept of ‘Central Governing’ for many years, all the little ‘fiefs’ – of which both Beirut and Tripoli (let alone the rest of the ‘country’) are COLLECTIONS OF – The lovely idea of ONE LEBANON failed miserably.
        It’s all ‘turf wars’ of ‘name families’ … ‘Protection’ of the tribes … that MALE DOMINANT IDIOCY that simply won’t quit … terrorizing and killing women and children ad infinitum. Creating a ‘next generation’ of ‘fighting cocks’ from the male children, when the protection of a female is ONLY because she’s viewed as ‘a possession’.
        ‘Hot Spots’ are wherever there are flare-ups. The gangs move with impunity through all the ‘peaceful’ zones … in fact, there are none.

Leave a Reply