Army Clashes with Gunmen in Tripoli, Two Wounded

Two people were injured in an exchange of gunfire between gunmen and the Lebanese army in the northern city of Tripoli, media reports said on Tuesday.

The overnight clashes took place in Mallouleh bridge, where the armed men erected a checkpoint.

The gunmen opened fire at Jabal Mohsen during the clashes with the army, leading to tension and sniper activity between the neighborhood and its rival Bab al-Tabbaneh neighborhood.

The army contained the situation before it further escalated.

On Friday twin car bombs struck the mostly Sunni Muslim northern port city of Tripoli, just a week after a blast ripped through a densely populated Shiite area of Beirut's Ruwais.

Tripoli has witnessed recurrent clashes between the Sunni-majority neighborhood of Bab al-Tabbaneh and the mainly Alawite neighborhood of Jabal Mohsen.

The clashes have become more frequent and deadly since the beginning of the Syrian uprising, which pits the Sunni-led opposition against the regime of President Bashar Assad, who is Alawite.