Three soldiers were injured on Monday during a clash with gunmen in the northern city of Tripoli as they deployed in their neighborhood, part of a security plan in the capital of the North.

One of the soldiers was badly wounded after gunmen from the district of Bab al-Tabbaneh opened fire on them. The army responded to the sources of fire as the soldiers deployed heavily in the area.

Lebanese security forces detained a person who allegedly facilitated the fleeing of several suspects involved in the twin bombings that targeted two mosques in the northern city of Tripoli.

According to the pan-Arab daily al-Hayat published on Monday, the detained man is smuggling the suspects to the neighboring country Syria, including Ahmed Merhi, who is reportedly the driver of the second explosive-laden vehicle that blew up near al-Taqwa mosque.

Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Miqati said the armed forces were not being biased to any side in their reinforced presence in the northern city of Tripoli to end the deadly fighting between rival neighborhoods.

The army is implementing the decisions reached at a Baabda palace meeting last week, Miqati said in remarks published on Monday.

Caretaker Interior Minister Marwan Charbel said on Monday that the situation in the northern city of Tripoli will be resolved gradually.

He pointed out in comments published in As Safir newspaper that the situation in the city is “difficult.”

Speaker Nabih Berri has said that the different Lebanese factions reject sliding into a new civil war despite the fighting that has rattled the northern city of Tripoli in the past week.

In remarks to several local newspapers published on Monday, Berri said: “The different Lebanese (parties) have a conviction not to return to war and repeat the black and deadly experiences that all of them have witnessed despite some separate incidents.”

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea called on Monday on the caretaker cabinet to hold an extraordinary session to call the northern city of Tripoli an arms-free city.

Geagea said in comments published in An Nahar newspaper that most of the residents of the northern city are demanding to announce it an arms-free city.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi criticized on Sunday the political authorities in Lebanon for “neglecting their duties” and their attempts to create political vacuum in the country.

He said during his Sunday sermon: “Officials should prepare conditions to elect a new president within the constitutional deadline.”

The army started implementing a security plan in the northern city of Tripoli on Sunday afternoon in a bid to put an end to seven days of deadly clashes, state-run National News Agency reported.

“Army units have completed their deployment in Jabal Mohsen, ahead of expanding this deployment to the neighboring areas, amid a notable decline in the intensity of clashes on all frontiers which are only witnessing a minor sniper activity,” NNA said.

Al-Mustaqbal movement leader ex-PM Saad Hariri accused Syrian President Bashar Assad of being the mastermind of all crimes in Lebanon, and held the state responsible for the deteriorating security situation in the northern city of Tripoli.

In a statement issued by his press office, Hariri said it was “useless” to find ways to resolve the cabinet crisis, or hold a parliamentary session or resume the national dialogue after Tripoli has come under attack in a “suspicions war.”

The Mufti of Tripoli and the north, Sheikh Malek al-Shaar, stressed on Saturday that the situation in Tripoli is not sectarian but rather is based on a side's allegiance to a foreigner country.

“We reject to slip into any sectarian strife,” Shaar said during a meeting for the Higher Islamic Council at the Dar al-Fatwa in the northern city of Tripoli.