The death toll from three days of fighting between supporters and opponents of the Syrian government in Lebanon has risen to 10 people.
Two people were killed by snipers in the northern city of Tripoli on Saturday and three died from injuries sustained earlier in the week. Nearly 50 people have also been injured in the violence.
Clashes are underway in Tripoli’s rival districts of Jabal Mohsen and Bab Al Tebbaneh.
The new wave of violence that erupted on Thursday caused local schools to close and reduced traffic flow in the city to a trickle.
Many people have been killed in the northern Lebanese city, which has been the scene of intermittent fighting between the supporters and opponents of Syrian President Bashar Al Assad since the outbreak of violence in Syria in 2011.
The Lebanese army has on many occasions intervened to calm the situation in Tripoli.
The army fortified its posts on Friday and deployed its troops in the city, especially in a street that separates Bab Al Tabbaneh from neighboring Jabal Mohsen.
The troops are said to have arrested several people overnight and responded to sources of fire.
Last month, two people were killed and nearly a dozen others injured in clashes that followed the assassination of Abdel Rahman Diab – a senior official in Lebanon’s Arab Democratic Party that supported Assad.
In January, at least 10 people, including a Lebanese army soldier, were killed in five days of clashes between the two sides in the city.
Lebanon has also been suffering terrorist attacks carried out by Al Qaeda-linked militant groups, as well as random rocket attacks which are viewed as a spillover of violence from neighboring Syria.
