Lebanese tanks were out on the streets of Tripoli yesterday after nine people including a boy were killed in sectarian fighting that raged through the night in the northern port city.
Militants from the rival Sunni Muslim and Alawite communities battled with rocket-propelled grenades and automatic weapons in the latest bout of violence to rock the Mediterranean city.
“The army is working for real calm in the north,” an army official said, but added: “Security requires political agreement.”
Lebanon has been hit by sporadic outbreaks of violence despite a power-sharing deal between rival political factions in May that led to the election of Michel Suleiman as president and the creation of a unity Cabinet.
The latest unrest came after the new Cabinet hit snags in deliberations aimed at drawing up a policy agenda ahead of a parliamentary vote of confidence that would enable the government to be officially installed.
The army was on high alert, with tanks and armored vehicles patrolling the streets to keep the peace between fighters in the mainly Sunni Bab al-Tebbaneh district and the neighboring and largely Alawite area of Jabal Mohsen.
Among the dead were a 10-year-old boy and two women, while 50 people were injured in the fighting that first erupted early on Friday, the security official said.
Intense fighting raged through the night despite a ceasefire that went into effect at 3pm on Friday, but by yesterday morning the situation was generally calm.
However, residents of Bab al-Tebbaneh were blocking a motorway to the border with Syria with rocks and tires in protest at the arrest of two fellow inhabitants over the fighting.
Shops in the area were closed and many families who evacuated their homes near the main battle zone were taking refuge in schools.
“The army has sent reinforcements to the battle zones to secure the ceasefire and the army command has promised us to firmly respond to any violation of the ceasefire,” Sunni member of parliament Mohammed Abdel Latif Kabbara of the parliamentary ruling majority said.
Interior Minister Ziad Barud and the head of the internal security forces Ashraf Rifi headed to Tripoli late on Friday to see the situation for themselves and to assess measures to restore calm.
STILL COMMITTED: The US opposes any forced change to the ‘status quo’ in the Strait, but also does not seek conflict, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said US President Donald Trump’s administration released US$5.3 billion in previously frozen foreign aid, including US$870 million in security exemptions for programs in Taiwan, a list of exemptions reviewed by Reuters showed. Trump ordered a 90-day pause on foreign aid shortly after taking office on Jan. 20, halting funding for everything from programs that fight starvation and deadly diseases to providing shelters for millions of displaced people across the globe. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has said that all foreign assistance must align with Trump’s “America First” priorities, issued waivers late last month on military aid to Israel and Egypt, the
France’s nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and accompanying warships were in the Philippines yesterday after holding combat drills with Philippine forces in the disputed South China Sea in a show of firepower that would likely antagonize China. The Charles de Gaulle on Friday docked at Subic Bay, a former US naval base northwest of Manila, for a break after more than two months of deployment in the Indo-Pacific region. The French carrier engaged with security allies for contingency readiness and to promote regional security, including with Philippine forces, navy ships and fighter jets. They held anti-submarine warfare drills and aerial combat training on Friday in
COMBAT READINESS: The military is reviewing weaponry, personnel resources, and mobilization and recovery forces to adjust defense strategies, the defense minister said The military has released a photograph of Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄) appearing to sit beside a US general during the annual Han Kuang military exercises on Friday last week in a historic first. In the photo, Koo, who was presiding over the drills with high-level officers, appears to be sitting next to US Marine Corps Major General Jay Bargeron, the director of strategic planning and policy of the US Indo-Pacific Command, although only Bargeron’s name tag is visible in the seat as “J5 Maj General.” It is the first time the military has released a photo of an active
CHANGE OF MIND: The Chinese crew at first showed a willingness to cooperate, but later regretted that when the ship arrived at the port and refused to enter Togolese Republic-registered Chinese freighter Hong Tai (宏泰號) and its crew have been detained on suspicion of deliberately damaging a submarine cable connecting Taiwan proper and Penghu County, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement yesterday. The case would be subject to a “national security-level investigation” by the Tainan District Prosecutors’ Office, it added. The administration said that it had been monitoring the ship since 7:10pm on Saturday when it appeared to be loitering in waters about 6 nautical miles (11km) northwest of Tainan’s Chiang Chun Fishing Port, adding that the ship’s location was about 0.5 nautical miles north of the No.
RSS