Fears of civil war loom large over Lebanese city

By Khaled Yacoub Oweis

TRIPOLI, Lebanon (Reuters) - Businesses shut down and traffic emptied in Lebanon's second city on Monday when a street battle broke out between pro-government Sunni Muslim fighters and members of an Alawite minority loyal to Syria.

"No one knows what is going on in Tripoli anymore. Every sect and political leader have acquired a militia. Any one can get stopped and be asked for their identity," Saleh Aref told Reuters as he pulled down the shutters of his accessories shop.

The ancient city, famed for its crusader castle, souks and Arabic sweets, is the latest theatre of fighting that has killed more than 80 people across Lebanon in the last six days.

Tripoli is predominantly Sunni with historic trading and family links to Syria. A few thousand Alawites live in the Jebel Mohsen neighborhood on a hill overlooking the city. Christian villages are nestled nearby, among the foothills of the Cedar mountain range.

Alawite militiamen exchanged rocket-propelled grenades and machinegun fire with pro-government Sunni fighters in the Bab Tebbaneh district closer to the seaside. A burnt car laid on a main roundabout and the thoroughfare was littered with spent rounds. Six people were wounded in the fighting.

"We do not want a sectarian war but if they do, we are ready. We are Lebanese but proud with our links to Syria," said Saleh Abdul Latif, an Alawite district leader.

The sentiment was echoed on the opposite side with Sunnis saying the Alawites were trying to revive the influence of Syria, which peaked between the end of Lebanon's civil war in 1990 and 2005 when Syrian forces left the country. Bashar al-Assad, Syria's president, is from the Alawite sect.

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