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BEIRUT, May 13 (Reuters) – Two people were killed when
fighting erupted overnight in the Lebanese city of Tripoli
between members of the Alawite minority loyal to Syrian
President Bashar al-Assad and members of the Sunni majority,
witnesses and security officials said on Sunday.
Rocket-propelled grenades and automatic rifles were used in
the fighting in an Alawite enclave and surrounding Sunni
neighbourhoods in the port city, 70 km (44 miles) north of
Beirut.
“The clashes peaked at dawn. The sound of gunfire is still
echoing in the city,” a Lebanese security official said.
The fighting underlines how sectarian tensions in Syria
could spill over to neighbouring Lebanon.
A small Alawite minority are concentrated in Tripoli, a
conservative Sunni city where many residents have been enraged
by Assad’s crackdown on the 14-month revolt against 42 years of
rule by the Assad family and their Alawite establishment.
Syria’s Sunni majority are at the forefront of the uprising
against Assad, whose sect is an offshoot of Shi’ite Islam.
Syrian troops withdrew from Lebanon under international
pressure in 2005 after a 29-year presence, but Assad retains big
influence in the small but geopolitically important country
through his main ally, the Shi’ite guerrilla group Hezbollah,
the only Lebanese party that has an officially approved arsenal.
(Reporting by Laila Bassam; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
