Clashes renewed on Thursday in the northern city of Tripoli after a three-day violence linked to the conflict in neighboring Syria, with the death toll reaching 11 as an investigation has been launched in the matter.

Thirty-nine-year-old Hassan Abaydo was shot in the heart by a sniper in the Alawite area of Jabal Mohsen, Agence France Presse reported.

Al-Mustaqbal parliamentary bloc leader Fouad Saniora told President Michel Suleiman that it would be useless to sit at the dialogue table in the presence of a government that gives cover to the suspects in ex-Premier Rafik Hariri's Feb. 2005 assassination, An Nahar daily reported on Sunday.

“What's the point of (engaging in) dialogue in the presence of a government that covers up suspects in ex-PM Rafik Hariri's murder and the assassination attempt of MP Butros Harb,” An Nahar quoted Saniora as telling Suleiman during a meeting they held at Baabda Palace on Saturday.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi said Thursday that no one should request the authorities to hand over suspects in ex-Premier Rafik Hariri's assassination because they are innocent until proven guilty.

“No party has the right to request the handing over of the suspects because a suspect is innocent until proven guilty and the issue is up to the judiciary to decide,” al-Rahi said in response to a question on the request made by the March 14 opposition alliance.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea issued on Wednesday an open letter to Speaker Nabih Berri, condemning the continued parliamentary meetings in light of the 25 assassinations and failed assassination attempts in Lebanon in the past few years.

He declared: “We will not perform any routine duty until assassinations in Lebanon end.”

Salafist cleric Sheikh Ahmed al-Asir announced on Saturday his intention to form a “resistance brigade” in the southern city of Sidon.

He said during a press conference: “The decision to form the brigade has been suspended pending consultations with various powers.”

The Office of the Prosecutor for the Special Tribunal for Lebanon has analyzed a videotape from the scene of the blast that killed Internal Security Forces Intelligence Branch chief and ruled that none of the suspects in ex-Premier Rafik Hariri's assassination were appearing in it, As Safir daily reported on Thursday.

The newspaper said the Prosecutor's office had unofficially received one of the videotapes that caught the Oct. 19 car bomb blast in Beirut's Ashrafiyeh district, which left ISF Intelligence Bureau chief Wissam al-Hasan and two others dead.

March 14 camp MP Ammar Houri revealed that he and four colleagues were texted death threats from a Syrian telephone number before and after Internal Security Forces Intelligence Bureau head Wissam al-Hasan's assassination on Friday.

"On the eve of the attack, we received an SMS from a Syrian number that read: 'Sons of bitches, we will get you one by one,'" Ammar Houri said on television on Monday night.

Prime Minister Najib Miqati signed on Tuesday the decree to refer the case of the assassination of Internal Security Forces Intelligence Bureau head Wissam al-Hasan's to the judicial council.

The decree has also been referred to President Michel Suleiman.

Progressive Socialist Party leader warned on Monday against forcing the government to “carry more than it can bear” in Lebanon in light of the increased demands for its resignation in the wake of the assassination of Internal Security Forces Intelligence Bureau head Brigadier General Wissam al-Hasan on Friday.

He said in his weekly editorial in the PSP-affiliated al-Anbaa magazine: “Insisting on the government's resignation will lead Lebanon to a vacuum and the country into the Syrian regime's trap.”

The head of the Syrian National Council Abdel Basset Sayda accused the Syrian regime of being behind the assassination of Internal Security Forces Intelligence Bureau head Brigadier General Wissam al-Hasan, reported al-Joumhouria newspaper Monday.

He warned: “The Syrian regime will commit more assassinations in Lebanon in order to create unrest in the country and cover up its crimes in Syria.”