Jabal Mohsen resident, the target of gunfire

Citizen Ghazi Abbas al-Mahmoud from Jabal Mohsen was injured by gunfire on Tuesday outside Chahine Hospital where he works in the Tripoli region of al-Tal near the municipality building.

Attacks against unarmed residents of Jabal Mohsen have not been uncommon in the past few months and come as a direct spillover of the violence in neighboring Syria.

In November, similar attacks targeted three municipal workers from Jabal Mohsen, when they were shot in the leg, renewing sectarian tension in the city and triggering disputes between residents of Bab al-Tebbaneh and Jabal Mohsen. The "Military Committee of the Families of the Tripoli Blasts Victims" claimed responsibility for this shooting, while reports stated that names of Alawite municipal workers were leaked to facilitate targeting them.

The port city of Tripoli 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.