BEIRUT – Fresh sectarian violence erupted in Lebanon Monday, stoking fears about the stability of the country after a top security official was killed in a car bombing blamed on neighboring Syria. The army said it was determined to restore order, with the northern port of Tripoli also shaken by fighting between partisans and opponents of Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad that killed five people. In the afternoon, personnel carriers entered the capital's Sunni district of Tariq Jdideh, which had been a hotspot all day, and soldiers took up position on streets leading into it to keep them open, a military spokesman said. Before dawn, six people were wounded when the army made a pre-dawn sweep of Tariq Jdideh in pursuit of armed men, and automatic weapons and anti-tank rocket fire could be heard. Later, soldiers responded after being fired on as they tried to clear a road into the district, a stronghold of opposition leader Saad Hariri whose partisans had blocked it despite calls by the former premier to stay off the streets. The army spokesman said a 20-year-old Palestinian resident, Ahmad Quaider, was killed in the shooting, but the circumstances were unclear. In Tripoli, a Sunni bastion where opposition to Assad is strong, a woman and four youths died during clashes between Sunnis and Alawites, security sources said. A four-year-old girl was wounded, as were three soldiers hit as troops tried to restore calm. Clashes have erupted regularly in Tripoli as tensions spill over the border from Syria, where a 19-month-old anti-regime revolt has left more than 34,000 people dead. Lebanon has been on edge since Friday, when police intelligence chief General Wissam Al-Hassan died in the Beirut bombing. The attack sparked immediate calls for Prime Minister Najib Mikati, whose cabinet is dominated by Damascus ally Hezbollah, to resign. A statement from the army high command said it is “committed to its role of stopping security breaches and maintaining civil order. Recent developments prove decidedly that the country is going through a critical time, and the level of tension in some areas has reached unprecedented levels.” – Agencies
