AFP – Sectarian clashes linked to Syria’s war have killed 10 people over the past six days in Lebanon’s northern city of Tripoli, a security official said Thursday.
“A soldier who was injured on Wednesday died of his wounds today,” the source told AFP, bringing the death to 10.
On Wednesday night, a civilian and a soldier were killed in the ongoing clashes, which have wounded more than 60 people.
The deaths are the latest in multiple rounds of fighting between the Sunni neighbourhood of Bab al-Tebbaneh and the Alawite neighbourhood of Jabal Mohsen.
The sectarian fault line between the districts is decades-old, but has been exacerbated by the Syrian conflict, which pits a Sunni-dominated uprising against Alawite President Bashar al-Assad.
The 10 dead include five from Bab al-Tebbaneh, three from Jabal Mohsen and two soldiers, the source said.
The army has deployed troops on aptly named Syria Street, which is the frontline separating the neighbourhoods.
A ceasefire agreed at an emergency meeting at the Tripoli residence of caretaker prime minister Najib Mikati just after Wednesday night’s clashes appeared to be holding.
But hundreds of families that have fled the two neighbourhoods in the past six days have not returned, and schools near the restive districts remained closed.
In December, the army was handed control of Tripoli after several rounds of fighting, but it has been largely unable to prevent clashes from breaking out.
