There was cautious calm in the northern city of Tripoli on Tuesday after a tense night that left an elderly dead and around five others injured, the state-run National News Agency reported.
Salim Amin al-Ashqar, 75, died after inhaling smoke from shops that were burned by armed men to protest the arrest of a suspect who had appeared alongside singer-turned Salafist Fadel Shaker in a video circulated in the wake of the gunbattles in the southern city of Sidon, NNA said.
Tripoli municipality workers were seen on Tuesday morning removing the debris from Abdul Hamid Karami square and its surroundings after gunmen hurled hand grenades and opened fire in the air in addition to using Rocket Propelled Grenades at night.
The army also carried out patrols and set up checkpoints at several squares and roads in the city on Tuesday, hours after it quelled the armed men and forced them back to the markets area.
The army command said in a communique late Monday that the protest carried out at Abdul Hamid Karami square was accompanied by road closures in Bohsas and an attack on the army base in al-Jemmayzat.
The army responded to the sources of fire and reopened the roads that were blocked with burning tires, it said.
The communique added that the military was pursuing the assailants to arrest them.
Copyright © 2012 Naharnet.com. All Rights Reserved. | https://www.naharnet.com/stories/en/89001 |