The battle for Syria spills into Lebanon

Supporters and opponents of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad shot it out with each other on Saturday, dragging the nearly year-long uprising in Syria across the border. Several people were killed before the Lebanese Army managed to intervene.

TRIPOLI: Three people died and 23 were wounded during fierce clashes on Saturday between Lebanese Sunni Muslims hostile to Syria’s regime and Alawites who support it, a Lebanese security official said.

“A Sunni and an Alawite were killed and 23 people were wounded in clashes that continued since Friday between people from the neighbourhoods of Jabal Mohsen and Bab al-Tebbaneh” in the northern city of Tripoli, the official told AFP.

A 17-year-old girl died of her wounds later.

Ten soldiers were among those wounded in the fighting, among them a sergeant whose wounds were critical, the official added.

The two sides fired guns and rocket-propelled grenades at each other in the bloodiest clashes since last June when six people were killed in the wake of demonstrations against the Syrian government.

Hezbollah — one of Assad’s biggest supporters — has not involved itself in any of these clashes yet. That could change though as tensions grow grow in Lebanon in light of the growing reality that Assad’s days in power could be numbered.