Army Arrests 18 Gunmen, Seizes Weapons in Tripoli

The army on Sunday arrested 18 gunmen and confiscated quantities of weapons and ammunition in the unrest-hit northern city of Tripoli.

Al-Jadeed television said the army arrested 10 gunmen from al-Mouri family and seized two truckloads of weapons and ammunition from a center belonging to the family in al-Zahriyeh neighborhood.

The army said in a statement that it raided al-Zahriyeh after gunmen opened fire at one of its patrols in the neighborhood.

“Army reinforcements were sent to the area, where they staged a major crackdown on the hideouts of the gunmen. Eighteen gunmen were arrested and quantities of weapons, ammunition and military equipment were seized,” said the statement.

The army also raided some locations in al-Qebbeh neighborhood after gunfire erupted there and seized quantities of weapons and ammunition, according to the statement.

“The detainees and the seized items were handed over to the relevant authorities for further action,” the statement added.

One man was killed and six others were wounded in Tripoli on Sunday as fresh clashes broke out between the rival neighborhoods of Jabal Mohsen and Bab al-Tabbaneh, a security official said.

Three of the wounded were Lebanese soldiers who are deployed in the port city to quell tensions after fierce street battles first erupted last Monday, raising concerns that Syria-linked violence could destabilize the country.

"The army surrounded an armed group, who were entrenched in some of the houses and positioned on the roofs of some buildings," the source told Agence France Presse.

Clashes lasted for an hour, and the army later arrested 10 militiamen, he added.

A ceasefire brokered by local officials was supposed to take effect Wednesday, but violence was reignited when a sniper killed a Sunni cleric on Friday, and at least 118 people have been wounded in the course of the week.

Sniper fire continued on Sunday, according to the security official, who said the man killed had been hit by a sniper in Jabal Mohsen. State-run National News Agency identified the victim as Adel Othman.

Despite patrols by the Lebanese army, "gunmen continue to ride around on motorbikes with their weapons out in the open. They avoid arrest by driving into crowded neighborhoods and narrow alleys where it is difficult for the army to pursue them," the source said.

The latest violence in Tripoli came on the heels of a spate of kidnappings in Lebanon linked to the conflict in neighboring Syria.

The army is “cleansing the area” of the fighting and it will respond to any gunfire, reported the pan-Arab daily al-Hayat Sunday.

The gunfire did not thwart some of the residents of the rival neighborhoods from reopening their stores, revealed al-Mustaqbal daily on Sunday.

The sources noted to An Nahar that the exhaustion of the fighters has led to the decrease in the intensity of the clashes.