Sidon/Tripoli, LEBANON (Agencies)
A top militant was critically wounded on Sunday in a blast near the Palestinian refugee camp of Ain el-Helweh in south Lebanon which injured four others, a security official told AFP.
Imad Yassin, a senior member of the Jund al-Sham Islamist group, was wounded along with two of his bodyguards when a charge placed in a rubbish bin exploded in the Taameer Ain el-Helweh area outside the camp, the official said.
A woman and an eight-year-old girl were also slightly wounded in the blast which prompted several families to flee the area.
Tension was high inside the camp with fighters from the mainstream Palestinian Fatah faction deploying to prevent an escalation, an AFP correspondent reported.
The camps are outside the control of the Lebanese authorities, with Palestinian factions in charge of security.
Clashes in recent months have erupted between Jund al-Sham militants and Fatah fighters in Ain el-Helweh. |
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Tripoli clashes Sunday's blast came as heavy sectarian clashes took place in the northern city of Tripoli, leaving at least two people dead and 33 wounded.
Explosions and machinegun fire rocked the city as Sunni and Alawite Muslim gunmen battled on the outskirts of the mainly Sunni Muslim port city.
Lebanese army units deployed in the area and tried to end the fighting as local leaders tried to contain the conflict.
Several homes, shops and cars were damaged in the clashes that left the streets of the city largely deserted.
It was not immediately clear how the fighting began at dawn but tension has been high in recent weeks between the Sunni Bab Tibbaneh district and Alawite Jabal Mohsen.
Tripoli is dominated by the country's anti-Syrian Sunni-led majority coalition while a majority of Alawites maintain close ties to Syria, which is ruled by an Alawite.
Similar clashes took place in various regions early in May when 65 people were killed, stoking fears that the country, which endured 15 years of civil war up to 1990, was heading for a new conflict.
Last Tuesday, three people were killed in clashes between pro- and anti-government residents in two villages in the Bekaa, in eastern Lebanon, according to a Lebanese military official.
An accord reached in Doha on May 21 between the opposition and government ended an 18-month-long political crisis which sparked the clashes. The agreement resulted in the election of Michel Suleiman as president, ending a six-month vacuum in the top job.
Sunday's clashes occurred amid a continuing failure to set up a national unity government, which was envisaged by the Doha agreement. |
