Grenades Attack, Road Closure as Army Carries out Tripoli Raids

The implementation of a security plan by the Lebanese army in the northern city of Tripoli faced on Tuesday attacks and protests by angry men.

The state-run National News Agency said several grenades were tossed in the area of al-Baraniyeh as residents shortly blocked the road of al-Dabagha and wheat market with burning tires.

The grenade attack and the road closure were aimed at stopping the army from carrying out raids to arrest suspects involved in dozens of clashes that the city has witnessed in the past years.

The protest expanded when the army impounded two cars from the motorcade of Dai al-Islam al-Shahhal, a prominent Salafist leader in Lebanon, in al-Baraniyeh, NNA said.

The army soon intervened to disperse the protesters, arresting two people for the possession of three rifles, two guns, and ammunition.

They were also found to have been driving a vehicle without proper legal papers.

The army deployed in Tripoli last week in an unprecedented operation to quell violence between the Alawite neighborhood of Jabal Mohsen and the nearby Sunni district of Bab al-Tabbaneh.

Al-Shahhal considered in a press conference that “there's a conspiracy targeting the Sunni sect by some sides that want it to subdued by the Iranian project.”

“Lebanon is abducted and our army is being diverted to treat its people similar to the Syrian army.”

He wondered why the “Salafist movement is being targeted.”

“The army commits mistakes and if offenders weren't held responsible then we would be covering up for more crimes against” Sunnis, al-Shahhal added.

A Baabda Palace statement said President Michel Suleiman followed up the security plan, stressing the importance of taking the necessary measures to reach stability and arrest perpetrators to bring them to justice.

Tensions between the two impoverished districts of Jabal Mohsen and Bab al-Tabbaneh go back decades but have been exacerbated by the war in Syria, where Alawite President Bashar Assad faces Sunni rebels seeking to topple him.

Successive rounds of violence between the neighborhoods have killed dozens of people and brought parts of the city to a standstill.

G.K.

H.K.