Tripoli, Lebanon is under Lebanese army guard after seven people were killed in clashes between pro and anti-Assad groups, hours after the prime minister visited.
The bloody confrontation pitted Alawites, who follow Syrian President Bashar Assad, against Sunni Muslims as intra-Muslim strife threatens to boil over into Lebanon, where Syria has increased power by proxy through the increasing dominance of the Shi’ite-based Hizbullah terrorist group.
A Hizbullah-pro-Syrian alliance has reduced the anti-Syrian parties to a minority, but the clashes in Tripoli forced Prime Minister Naïf Miqati to deploy the army in Tripoli.
“The army succeeded in putting an end to the lava of the Syrian volcano and would continue along with the security forces to confront” a new eruption, Lebanese security authorities told the An Nahar daily.
Hundreds of protesters rallied against Assad on Friday, and fighting broke out between gunmen in rival neighborhoods, which are similarly divided among those backing the Syrian uprising and those supporting Assad.
At least seven people were killed and more than 50 were wounded in the riots, which -- coincidentally or not -- occurred the same day that Tripoli hosted the prime minister. Miqati is an ally of Assad and Hizbullah, and his pro-Syrian coalition controls the government, including the sensitive communications ministry, which gives Hizbullah the opportunity to control the country’s communication networks while advancing its own Iranian-funded networks.