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.
US President Donald Trump yesterday announced sweeping "reciprocal tariffs" on US trading partners, including a 32 percent tax on goods from Taiwan that is set to take effect on Wednesday. At a Rose Garden event, Trump declared a 10 percent baseline tax on imports from all countries, with the White House saying it would take effect on Saturday. Countries with larger trade surpluses with the US would face higher duties beginning on Wednesday, including Taiwan (32 percent), China (34 percent), Japan (24 percent), South Korea (25 percent), Vietnam (46 percent) and Thailand (36 percent). Canada and Mexico, the two largest US trading
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
RSS