Fighting intensifies in north Lebanon

ATTENTION - UPDATES with fighting, background /// TRIPOLI, Lebanon, July 25, 2008 (AFP) - Sectarian clashes intensified on Friday in the north Lebanese port city of Tripoli, with heavy gunfire taking over from hours of sporadic sniper fire, an AFP correspondent said. Rocket-propelled grenades were also being used in the renewed clashes, the correspondent said, adding that one rocket hit an apartment building near the vegetable market setting it ablaze. A security official told AFP that five people had been wounded in the clashes. One of the wounded was a passerby from the Sunni district of Bab al-Tebbaneh caught in crossfire between fighters from his area and the neighbouring largely Alawite area of Jabal Mohsen. Another person was wounded by the earlier sniper fire on Friday morning, the official added. Shopkeepers in the... [read full story]