Renewed Sectarian Tension in Tripoli, Several Jabal Mohsen Residents Injured

The northern city of Tripoli witnessed renewed sectarian tension on Thursday after at least three residents of the neighborhood of Jabal Mohsen were injured in a shooting.

The state-run National News Agency said assailants shot the three men in their feet in the area of al-Zahriyeh.

LBCI TV said there were four victims. It identified them as Tripoli municipal workers Wissam Fares, Mohammed Saleh, Said Issa and Haidar Soto.

Shortly later, a hand grenade was tossed in the rival Bab al-Tabbaneh district.

Reports said the tension erupted after members of the Arab Democratic Party hoisted the Syrian flag in Jabal Mohsen, which prompted Bab al-Tabbaneh residents to hoist the flag of the revolution.

LBCI said a Lebanese soldier was wounded while trying to contain the dispute.

Later on Thursday, the "Military Committee of the Families of the Tripoli Blasts Victims" claimed responsibility for the shooting.

It explained: “We will continue our activities until Arab Democratic Party chief Ali Eid, the group's Secretary-General Rifaat Eid as well as other attackers (behind the deadly mosques' explosions in the city) are tried.”

Meanwhile, security sources told LBCI that "someone is leaking the names of Allawite workers in the city's municipality offices to facilitate targeting them."

The same sources noted that the targeted men are linked to Abou Jamal al-Nouhaili, Ali Sharkass and al-Hallaq.

"The situation is Tripoli is not stable and we are working on reevaluating the adopted security measures to avoid another round of clashes.”

In a related matter, a bomb was hurled on Syria street between the rival neighborhoods of Bab al-Tabbaneh and Jabal Mohsen on Thursday evening, without causing any injuries.

OTV also said a clash erupted at the al-Nahhasin market in Tripoli near the bridge area.

The northern city has been witnessing in the past month tit-for-tat confessional attacks, a direct spillover of the Syrian war on Lebanon.