Exchange of fire in tense north Lebanese port city

0 Comments | AFP, June, 2008

TRIPOLI, Lebanon (AFP) — Tension was running high in the northern Lebanese port city of Tripoli on Sunday, where a shop was torched and gunmen exchanged fire even as troops were out in force on the streets.

There were no immediate reports of casualties in the clashes, which erupted as dusk fell a day after a man died in a blast of unknown cause in an apartment block in the city.

Nine people were killed in sectarian clashes in the mainly Sunni city last week, adding to tensions in a deeply divided country where rival factions are still squabbling over the makeup of a new national unity government.

A security official told AFP that a tobacco shop run by an Alawite was set ablaze in the mainly Sunni district of Bab al-Tebbaneh, the scene of Saturday's blast in...