Sheikh Rahim to LBCI: Islam forbids attack on innocent civilians

Member of the Association of Muslim Scholars, Salafist Sheikh Nabil Rahim, stressed on Wednesday that Islam forbids any attack on innocent civilians, noting that any assault on residents of Jabal Mohsen neighborhood who have nothing to do with the Tripoli twin blasts "is rejected."

Sheikh Rahim's comments were made during a phone call with LBCI's Nharkom Said TV show, in which he noted that all cover will be lifted off any security violators in the northern city.

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.

Sheikh Rahim also said that perpetrators of the attack on the bus carrying residents from Jabal Mohsen neighborhood do not belong to the Islamic Movement, adding that some Lebanese political leaders are hindering any possible solution for Tripoli's crisis.

On Saturday November 2, a number of citizens from Tripoli’s Bab al-Tebbaneh opened fire at others from Jabal Mohsen on the road between Naher Abou Ali and al-Mallouli region.

In the details, 6 persons from Jabal Mohsen were injured as a bus transporting them from Beirut to Tripoli came under fire in the mentioned region.

The injured persons were identified as: Ali Youssef Ghawi, Rabih Ahmad al-Hifi, Ali Dib, Ali Mazloum, Hassan Youssef, and Hassan Sleiman Ali.

Following the shooting, Lebanese Armed Forces soldiers intervened to contain the situation; however, Jabal Mohsen’s residents gathered in region to protest against the incident.