Deadly fighting over Syria grips north Lebanon

The BBC's Barbara Plett said permanent tensions between Sunni Muslims and Alawites in Lebanon were now "particularly intense"

Seven people have been killed and more than 70 wounded after fighting in northern Lebanon between two Muslim communities divided over Syria.

Street battles between Sunnis and Alawites in the city of Tripoli continued for a second night running.
Old rivalry between the two groups has been fuelled by conflicting loyalties in the conflict across the border.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, an Alawite, is battling largely Sunni opposition fighters.
Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati, himself a Sunni, appealed to both sides to end the "absurd battle" rocking Tripoli, a city of nearly 200,000 people and the country's second-largest.
"We have repeatedly warned against being drawn into this blaze that has spread around Lebanon," he said, speaking of the violence in Syria.
He urged Tripoli residents "not to allow anyone to transform you into ammunition for someone else's war".
Intense clashes Gunmen in the Sunni district of Bab al-Tabbana and Alawites in Jabal Muhsin exchanged gun and grenade fire overnight, residents were quoted as saying by Reuters news agency.
Two men killed were identified as residents of Jabal Muhsin, which overlooks a predominantly Sunni area where five people died, medical sources told the agency.

"It has gone a little bit quiet this morning but this is mainly due to the fact that they have been going at it all night”

         Ghaddi Sary Eyewitness in Tripoli

A resident of the city, Ghaddi Sary, told the BBC's Newsday programme that the authorities had failed to restore order.

"It has gone a little bit quiet this morning but this is mainly due to the fact that they have been going at it all night," he said.
"So far no signs of the conflict letting go and the army still failing to intervene. I mean they tried to deploy troops yesterday but it was forced to evacuate when some of its soldiers came under attack leaving nine wounded including an officer."
Tripoli is one of Lebanon's most volatile sectarian faultlines, with a small Alawite community living in the midst of a Sunni majority, the BBC's Barbara Plett reports from the capital, Beirut.
Violence flared several times recently but locals say the last two days of clashes have been particularly intense, our correspondent says.
One witness said heavier weapons were being used, and over a larger area than normal.
Dangerous divisions Government policy has been to try to disassociate the country from the Syrian crisis, amid concern that it might re-ignite the divisions that fuelled Lebanon's own 15-year civil war, our correspondent adds.

But the more sectarian the violence becomes in Syria, the harder it is to prevent it from seeping across the border, she says.
Syria was the dominant foreign power in Lebanon for some 30 years and attitudes to the conflict which erupted there last year colour Lebanese politics beyond Tripoli.
Last week, a Lebanese Shia Muslim clan kidnapped dozens of Sunni Muslims in retaliation for the abduction of a Lebanese Shia man by rebels inside Syria.
The rebels had accused the man, Hassan al-Mekdad, of being a member of the powerful Shia militant group Hezbollah who had entered the country to fight for the Assad government.
However, Hezbollah has denied any connection with the clan member or the kidnappings.
Unconfirmed reports speak of a new government military operation in Syria's second city, Aleppo, on Wednesday morning.
According to a count by the opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, 198 people were killed in fighting in Syria on Tuesday. The figure could not be verified independently.