TRIPOLI, Lebanon: Lebanese soldiers and police patrolled areas of the northern port city of Tripoli on Tuesday to enforce a truce after fierce sectarian clashes which killed eight people.
Civilians who had fled returned to the densely-populated Tripoli neighborhoods of Bab Al-Tebbaneh, Jabal Mohsen and Al-Qobbe but many shops remained closed, an AFP correspondent said.
Residents took stock of the damage in the areas, where several homes and a petrol station were burnt down in the two days of fighting which erupted on Sunday.
The clashes pitted Sunni supporters of the Western-backed majority in the Beirut parliament against members of an Alawite sect loyal to the Hezbollah-led opposition, which is backed by Syria and Iran.
It threatened to derail an agreement reached in Doha last month between rival politicians to end an 18-month political crisis in Lebanon.
Fighters who took part in the bloody fighting that also wounded 45 people disappeared from the streets after army and police reinforcements moved in on Monday afternoon.
The combatants traded heavy machine-gun fire, mortar rounds and rocket-propelled grenades during the battle, leading to a warning from the army.
We will use force if needed to end all armed presence in the combat zones where we are sending reinforcements following an accord between the warring sides calling for a ceasefire, an army spokesman said.
The security forces were on guard for any outburst of violence at funeral ceremonies for three people killed in the predominantly Alawite district of Jabal Mohsen later on Tuesday.
Tripoli, Lebanon s second-largest city, has been periodically rocked by clashes between the Sunni militants and members of the Alawite community, a secretive offshoot of Shiite Islam.
But the latest fighting raised fears of a nationwide security breakdown amid stalled efforts by Prime Minister Fouad Seniora to form a national unity government in line with the Qatari-brokered deal in May.
The accord led to the election of army chief Michel Sleiman as president, ending a six-month vacuum in the top job, but rival politicians have continued to bicker over the distribution of key portfolios in the new government.
At the presidential palace on the edge of Beirut, Sleiman on Tuesday hosted a meeting of top clerics from Lebanon s 18 religious communities to promote national unity.
The new president urged politicians to make concessions and sacrifices for the sake of Lebanon. Sleiman, who organized the meeting, told delegates that differences between Lebanese have led them to the brink of suicide and called for dialogue before it is too late.
Those attending the meeting called for the liberation of remaining territory occupied by Israel, referring in particular to the Shebaa Farms, a strip of land at the junction of southeast Lebanon, southwest Syria and northern Israel.
Israel seized the Farms from Syria at the same time as it captured the adjoining Golan Heights in the 1967 Middle East war. Beirut claims the territory with the consent of Damascus.-AFP
