Lebanese security forces killed a bomb maker and arrested another prominent militant suspect overnight in the northern city of Tripoli, sending armed supporters onto the streets in protest, security sources said on Sunday.
Religiously mixed Lebanon has suffered a wave of sectarian violence and multiple bomb attacks linked to the war in Syria which, like its neighbour Iraq, is fighting a Sunni Muslim insurgency.
Monzer al-Hassan, accused of providing explosives for a suicide bomber who wounded three security officers in the Duroy Hotel in Beirut in June, was killed during a raid at his home, the sources said. They said he was wearing an explosive belt during the raid and threatened to detonate.
Hussam al-Sabbagh was arrested at a checkpoint in the city, the sources said. There are several arrest warrants out for Sabbagh, who is accused of supporting gunmen in the Sunni neighbourhood of Bab al-Tabbaneh which has clashed with the adjacent Alawite neighbourhood of Jebel Mohsen.
The divisions in Tripoli, 20 miles (30 km) from the Syrian border, reflect the sectarian gulf across Lebanon over Syria's civil war. But the coastal city, where tensions between the Sunni Muslim majority and small Alawite community have festered for decades, has seen some of the heaviest violence this year.
The Lebanese army was trying to clear the streets of Sunni gunmen on Sunday fearing an uptick in violence, security sources said. The army blocked off a major roundabout near Bab al-Tabbaneh where around 150 men with assault rifles and other guns had deployed, although there were no reports of clashes.
Clashes between fighters in Bab al-Tabbaneh and Jebel Mohsen have flared several times in recent months, killing dozens since the beginning of the year.
© Thomson Reuters 2014