Judge Saqr charges 10 Bab al-Tebbaneh residents with involvement in the Tripoli clashes

The State Commissioner to the Military Court Judge Saqr Saqr filed on Thursday lawsuits against ten residents from Tripoli’s Bab al-Tebbaneh, on charges of involvement in the latest round of clashes, and referred them to the Military Investigative Judge Riyad Abu Ghayda.

Last month, Judge Saqr charged 79 persons with involvement in the violence that erupted between Jabal Mohsen and Bab al-Tebbaneh, while Judge Abu Ghayda issued arrest warrants in absentia against 12 persons over their alleged involvement in the same clashes, the latest round of which left at least 26 dead and 180 injured.

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 al-Tabbaneh district and the Jabal Mohsen district which mostly comprises residents of Syrian President Bashar Assad's Alawite sect, a Shiite Islam offshoot.