Wary calm prevailed on Tuesday in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli, in light of the Arab Democratic Party's call for a sit-in set to take place on Friday from the Jabal Mohsen neighborhood extending to Abdel Hamid Karami Square.
In this regard, the Islamic Alawite Council, the Arab Democratic Party and civil society groups in Jabal Mohsen submitted a letter to Governor of North Lebanon to take the permission of the security apparatuses to hold the said demonstration.
However, the Ministry of Interior did not grant these figures a license to stage the mentioned demonstration.
Meanwhile, figures from Bab al-Tebbaneh called on its partisans to attend a rally on Sunday to call for dissolving the Arab Democratic Party.
This comes as bus owners in Jabal Mohsen refused to transfer students to neighboring areas to denounce the continuous attacks against the residents.
On another note, traffic was reported as normal with schools and universities opening their doors.
The port city of Tripoli has long been a stronghold of Sunni Islamists in northern Lebanon.
But the city has become increasingly volatile in recent months due to the civil war in neighboring Syria, where the Sunni majority is leading a revolt against President Bashar al-Assad.
Fighting had re-erupted on Monday 21st October in the northern city between gunmen of rival Lebanese sects where at least 12 people were killed in the latest round of clashes.
The latest battle also wounded more than 60 people, officials said.
Disputes from neighboring Syria's civil war frequently inflame sectarian grievances in Tripoli. These clashes pit gunmen from both the mostly Sunni Bab Tabbaneh district and the Jabal Mohsen district which mostly comprises residents of Syrian President Bashar Assad's Alawite sect, a Shiite Islam offshoot.
Tensions had been mounting since 14 October, when a Lebanese military prosecutor pressed charges against seven men, at least one of whom was from Jabal Mohsen, for their involvement in twin bombings near two Sunni mosques in Tripoli on 23 August that killed 47 people.
To watch Nader Fawz' report, please click on the VIDEO above
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