TRIPOLI — The number of people killed in fighting between pro- and anti-Syrian factions in the northern Lebanese port city of Tripoli this week has risen to 15, a security official said Saturday. A 16-year-old boy died of wounds suffered during clashes on Friday night, the official said, adding that a total of 112 had also been wounded since street battles first erupted in the city on Monday. The fighting has pitted residents of the Sunni-dominated Bab El-Tebbaneh district and those of adjoining Jabal Mohsen, an Alawite stronghold. A ceasefire brokered by local officials was supposed to take effect Wednesday, but violence was reignited when a sniper killed a Sunni cleric on Friday. “There is now a cautious calm in the city, with sporadic sniper fire. Army foot patrols are responding to the sources of the shooting,” the security source said. He said shops were shut on Syria Street, which acts both as a dividing line between the rival neighborhoods and as the frontline when fighting erupts. Kuwaiti couple kidnapped The latest violence in Tripoli came on the heels of a spate of kidnappings in Lebanon linked to the conflict in neighboring Syria. Kuwait's ambassador to Lebanon said two nationals of the Gulf Arab state had been kidnapped in the Bekaa region, Kuwait News Agency reported on Saturday. “The efforts to free two abducted Kuwaitis in Lebanon are ongoing and the embassy will do its best to bring them back,” ambassador Abdul-Aal Al-Qana'ei was quoted as saying by KUNA. He named the hostages as Issam al-Houti and his wife, whom he said were seized in Bekaa, and did not say which group was thought to be behind the abduction. A Lebanese security source said Lebanese authorities were aware of the kidnapping of a Kuwaiti man, not his wife. “There are no apparent political reasons for his kidnapping,” he said. Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates this week advised their citizens to leave Lebanon because of spillover security risks from neighboring Syria. — Agencies
