LF leader Geagea, Rifi discuss general developments in Lebanon

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea met on Tuesday  with former Internal Security Forces head Major General Ashraf Rifif and discussed with him  the security situation in the northern city of Tripoli.

A statement was issued in this regards in which it mentioned that the meeting was held at  Geagea’s Maarab residence and that both officials tackled the general developments in Lebanon.

Rifi said that the Lebanese state should take serious measures to control the situation in Tripoli, and to arrest perpetrators of Tripoli's twin  blasts.

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.

On Friday the 23rd of August, two explosions rocked the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli near the al-Taqwa and al-Salam mosques, leaving 45 killed and almost 500 others injured.

In the details, one blast occurred outside the al-Taqwa mosque as Friday prayers ended, while the other hit central Tripoli near the al-Salam mosque facing the residence of the former general director of the Lebanese Internal Security Forces Major General Ashraf Rifi.

The al-Taqwa mosque is where hardline Salafist Sheikh Salem Rafei preaches. He has been known for his anti-Syrian regime sentiment.