Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun voiced on Friday his objection to the series of kidnappings that have taken place in Lebanon, saying that the causes of the incidents need to be addressed.

He said of the security unrest: “The instability will not spread to other areas because our political camp is containing it.”

State Commissioner to the Military Court Judge Saqr Saqr issued on Friday arrest warrants against gunmen involved in the clashes in the northern city of Tripoli.

He ordered the military police, army intelligence, and Internal Security Forces to identify and arrest those involved in the Tripoli unrest.

Education Minister Hassan Diab vowed on Friday to take into consideration the “exceptional circumstances” for the Grade 12 students in Tripoli who weren’t able to sit for the second round of the official exams.

“The students who weren’t able to reach the exams centers will re-sit for the exams later on,” Diab told Voice of Lebanon radio (93.3).

A Sunni sheikh and three others were killed during clashes in the northern city of Tripoli as intermittent gunbattles rocked the neighborhoods of Bab al-Tabbaneh and Jabal Mohsen on Friday for a fifth straight day.

Sheikh Khaled al-Baradei, 28, was killed from sniper fire when fierce fighting broke out at dawn between the residents of Qobbeh district and Jabal Mohsen despite an agreement reached on Thursday to give the army the green light to restore order in Tripoli.

A meeting held Thursday at Prime Minister Najib Miqati’s residence in Tripoli urged the army to restore security in the areas of the clashes “by all means necessary,” stressing that “the jeopardizing of civil peace in Tripoli and entire Lebanon will not be tolerated.”

The conferees “discussed the means to find a radical solution to this dilemma that has become a threat to civil peace in Tripoli and across Lebanon,” said a statement released by Miqati’s office.

Syrian Ambassador to Lebanon Ali Abdul Karim Ali hoped that Lebanon would fortify its border with Syria and prevent the smuggling of arms and infiltration of gunmen into Syrian territory, reported al-Nour radio on Thursday.

He told the radio: “Lebanon must fortify its internal scene and avoid responding to international pressure on Syria.”

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat noted on Thursday that the “battles in Tripoli” will not affect the Syrian crisis, despite being linked to it.

He told the PSP website: “The Tripoli unrest is aimed at diverting attention from the Syrian crisis.”

U.N. Deputy Special Coordinator for Lebanon Robert Watkins warned on Thursday that the latest armed clashes and kidnappings undermine the efforts to promote stability, urging the authorities to reject non-state actors from “taking the law into their own hands.”

The U.N. “has been following closely and with concern recent security incidents in the country, particularly the kidnappings targeting Syrian nationals and others in Lebanon as well as armed clashes that have been taking place in the past few days in Tripoli,” Watkins said following talks with Interior Minister Marwan Charbel.

Defense Minister Fayez Ghosn warned on Thursday that the deadly gunbattles among the residents of the northern city of Tripoli could spill over to other areas in Lebanon.

In remarks to Voice of Lebanon radio (93.3), Ghosn said: “The continued fighting in Tripoli could affect the entire country.”

Taking advantage of a tenuous ceasefire, residents of Tripoli’s Bab al-Tabbaneh and Jabal Mohsen returned to their neighborhoods Thursday to inspect the damage, after four days of sectarian fighting killed 10 people.

Earlier in the day renewed fighting killed one person and wounded two others, a security source had said.