Shops set on fire in Tripoli's Bab al-Tebbaneh

Unknown men set on fire several shops belonging to Alawites in the Souk al-Qamah area in Tripoli on Saturday, while the Lebanese Armed Forces worked on extinguishing the fire.

For his part, the media official of the Arab Democratic Party Abdel Latif Saleh told LBCI that Yehya Alouki, the brother of Ziad Alouki set on fire the shop belonging to Firas Hashem.

Meanwhile, Ziad Alouki denied to LBCI such allegations.

The Lebanese army issued later a communiqué in which it said that a fore erupted at a house in the Souk al-Qamah area after an electrical current fiction.

The statement  also denied that shops or houses were set on fire over sectarian disputes.

for its part,  the state-run national News Agency reported that the Lebanese army and Civil Defense units rushed swiftly at the scene and extinguished the fire.

An investigation was opened into the incident.

This comes as a delegation of Tripoli's Bab al-Tebbaneh dignitaries paid a visit to al-Qobbeh dignitaries to thank them for their participation in the rally staged in al-Qobbeh.

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.

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.