Meanwhile, In Lebanon…

10 Killed, at Least 35 Wounded in Tripoli Gunbattles

A Sunni gunman is seen near a burning building during clashes that erupted in the northern port city of Tripoli, Lebanon, Saturday, June 2, 2012. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

Ten people were killed and more than 31 people were injured in renewed clashes between the Jabal Mohsen and Bab al-Tabbaneh neighborhoods of the northern city of Tripoli, Beirut media reported on Saturday.

Among the dead were a woman and her son, killed by a rocket in the Bab al-Tebanneh district, a mostly Sunni Muslim community which supports Syria’s anti-regime opposition.

At least five were wounded in Jabal Mohsen, an area mainly populated by pro-Damascus Alawites.

According to MTV a meeting was held at al-Mustaqbal MP Mohammed Kabbara’s residence in Tripoli with security leaders and the city’s MPs in an attempt to end the clashes.

Smoke was seen billowing from several apartments near the city’s Syria street, the split between Bab Tabbaneh neighborhood and the adjacent, Jabal Mohsen, on a hill overlooking its rival. The area around Syria Street was mostly empty and gunmen were seen roaming the streets.

A security meeting at the Serail of Tripoli, chaired by head of the Tripoli’s gendarmerie, Brig. Gen. Bassam Ayoubi, agreed on the deployment of the internal security forces in the two neighborhoods.

However, they failed to maintain a ceasefire in the area.

The overnight battles with Rocket Propelled Grenades and machineguns calmed by 5:00 am but intermittent sniper fire continued throughout the day, leaving Khaled al-Rifai dead.

Eight people were injured overnight, two of them seriously, in the fighting between the rival neighborhoods, the National News Agency said earlier.

The news agency also said a house owned by Abdul Rahman Hamad was engulfed in flames in the area of Starco in Bab al-Tabbaneh when it was hit with an RPG.

Premier Najib Miqati held phone conversations with the chiefs of security agencies, urging them not to be tolerant with those who tamper with security in Tripoli.

He also called on them to intensify measures to restore calm in the city.

Sectarian violence has flared on a number of occasions in Tripoli since the revolt broke out in neighboring Syria in March 2011, including deadly street battles in May that erupted over the controversial arrest of Islamist Shadi al-Mawlawi, who was released last week..

Bab al-Tebbaneh and Jabal Mohsen have been gripped by frequent fighting, reflecting a split between Lebanon’s parties where the March 14- led opposition backs the revolt in Syria while a ruling coalition led by Hizbullah supports the Damascus regime.

Syrian violence spilling over into already lawless Lebanon cannot be a good thing. Just this week there were two other Syria related issues that took center stage in Lebanon. In the first, a group of Shiite Lebanese were taken hostage by “Salafists” in Syria, demanding an apology from Nasrallah. In another, two Lebanese farmers were captured by Syrian forces.

We must all remember that the phrase “Assad is butchering his own people” is false, he’s killing everyone but his people, the Alawites. This is the same kind of sectarian violence underneath the Libyan civil war, and this is the same violence that ripped Lebanon apart since the 80’s.

All we can do is hope that none of this will spill over into Israel. However, with some wanting to arm the Syrian opposition, and others arming Assad, the possibility that it won’t is diminishing. When the Syrian civil war ends, and sectarian violence quells down, all those arms will be aimed at Israel.

12 thoughts on “Meanwhile, In Lebanon…”

  1. Jim from Iowa

    I can’t see America getting involved in this mess, either. Whose side should we be on anyhow? Is there a pro-Israel, pro-Western faction there? I doubt it. McCain is as wrong about Syria as he was about Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan, etc.

    1. The Christians, led by Samir Geagea, though not necessarily “pro” Israel, are for the most part pro-West anti-Shia, anti-Islam. We all know the past relations between Israel and the Christians in Lebanon. However, any formal message by him regarding Israel as not the enemy, will probably finish him like Bachir Gemayel

  2. Mohammed's Retarded Face

    Years ago The Economist called the scenario where a country ceases to be a recognizable political entity, ‘Lebanization’. In the absence of ruthless autarky Arab states will always descend into civil anarchy. As we experience the end of era of fascist power with ‘The Arab Spring’, this is what the Arab world will swing to. One by one all the Arab states will disintegrate until a new crop of dictators emerges.

  3. Edmund Burke’s classic “Reflections on the Revolution in France” should be required reading for every analyst of the Arab Spring.

  4. “This is the same kind of sectarian violence underneath the Libyan civil war, and this is the same violence that ripped Lebanon apart since the 80’s.”

    Yeah, the type of thing that too often results from having multiple nations live under the same political roof (multiculturalism). A hint to all the Binational [Final] Solution and “State of All Its Citizens” crowd pushing it for the nation-state of the Jewish nation.

    “The Christians, led by Samir Geagea, though not necessarily ‘pro’ Israel, are for the most part pro-West anti-Shia, anti-Islam.”

    Yes. However, the Christians lost this war the moment Lebanon was founded—its constitution lacking a safeguard for Christian governance, it was only a matter of time until they reached their present situation of losing power to the Muslims by a simple demographic turn of the tide. There’s that cautionary note for the nation-state of the Jewish nation once again.

  5. Jim from Iowa

    The American puppet regime in Iraq supports Assad and is quite friendly with Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas. Another legacy of the George W. Bush presidency.

    1. Whatever noises Iraq’s Shi’ites might make, the Sunnis and Kurds see things differently. Iraq has maintained neutrality here simply because they have bled enough and internal stability is in their best interests.

    2. “Another legacy of the George W. Bush presidency.”

      No argument there. We’re faced today with the choice between leaders who either ignore Islam or wish to appease it.

      1. Jim from Iowa

        You left out the part of Obama as the Antichrist. Is there a fiction series like the “Left Behind” variety that focuses on the scary future but doesn’t require you to subscribe to nutty rapture theology?

        1. “You left out the part of Obama as the Antichrist.”

          I did not see any need to mention Obama in my comment. Unlike you, who think a small slight on Obama amounts to a complete character-assassination of him, I don’t think pointing out faults on Bush’s part is the same as carrying one of those “Bushitler” posters.

          On the same vein, I think Ronald Reagan is fit for Mount Rushmore, but that doesn’t mean I don’t criticize his policy of arming the Afghans.

          1. Jim from Iowa

            Fair enough. I should count my blessings that you didn’t go off on another anti-Obama rant. And they can put Reagan up there right after they add FDR, certainly the greatest American president of the 20th Century.

            1. “I should count my blessings that you didn’t go off on another anti-Obama rant.”

              You must be mistaking me for someone else. As far as I can recall, my rants have never been about Obama specifically, but the Far (=Marxist) Left in general. Sure, I’m anti-Obama, but not viscerally so, because I see him as just a symptom, not the problem itself.

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