Cautious calm overshadowed the northern city of Tripoli, despite intermittent gunfire, while the Lebanese Armed Forces conducted patrols throughout the streets.
Sources reported to LBCI that one LAF soldier was wounded after armed men fired gunshots at a military vehicle in Tripoli's Syria Street, adding that LAF soldiers responded to the sources of gunfire.
This as the international road linking Tripoli to Akkar remained blocked, while the activity in the city was paralyzed as the schools and universities closed their doors.
The fighting axes had witnessed on Sunday clashes where various types of machine guns and rockets were used. The death toll from the latest round of clashes reached 4, while the number of injured reached 49.
In turn, member of the Association of Muslim Scholars and Imam of al-Taqwa Mosque Sheikh Salem al-Rafei held what he says is the the Arab Democratic Party’s gang and its supporters, mainly Hezbollah, responsible for the latest round of clashes that erupted in Tripoli, noting that Hezbollah exploits the state’s apparatuses to protect “Jabal Mohsen’s militia.”
Following the meeting held by the Association of Muslim Scholars, al-Rafei called on President Michel Sleiman to interfere in order “to put an end to the unfair practices against the Sunnis in the area.”
For his part, Future Bloc MP Mohammad Kabbara accused what he dubbed “the government of a terrorist party”, in reference to Hezbollah, of flaming infighting within Tripoli in a bid to hinder the formation of a new government.
Kabbara said arms and ammunition were distributed on Sunday in Tripoli in an attempt to flare up the 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.
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.
The latest round of clashes came on the backdrop of the Arsal incident last Friday when a rocket that landed in the northeastern border Lebanese town left 9 civilians killed and several others injured.
The Lebanese army, and following thorough investigations, had determined the source of the rocket as east of Arsal towards Syria.