AFP, 24 August 2012 – A young Sunni sheikh was killed on Friday in Syria-related clashes between two rival neighborhoods in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli, denting a tenuous truce that was agreed earlier by local leaders.

Sheikh Khaled al-Baradei, 28, was killed when fierce fighting broke out at dawn between residents of the anti-Syrian Sunni Muslim Qobbeh district and the neighboring pro-Damascus Alawite district of Jabal Mohsen, the correspondent said.
The clashes breached a truce earlier agreed by local political leaders hours earlier in a bid to halt fighting fuelled by tensions in neighboring Syria.
The sectarian clashes began after gunmen in a nearby Sunni area shot dead an Alawite man. Nine others were wounded in the subsequent fighting.

At least 13 people have died and more than a hundred have been wounded in fighting this week between Lebanese Sunni Muslims and Alawites, reflecting the sectarian faultlines that have emerged in Syria’s conflict.

Syria’s majority Sunni Muslim population has been the backbone of the revolt against President Bashar al-Assad, whose minority Alawite sect has mostly stood with him.

Sunni-Alawite tensions have not only been growing in Syria but in parts of Lebanon as well, like Tripoli, where the two groups live in neighboring districts.

The army deployed troops and tanks on the streets on Thursday morning to calm the streets and clashes appeared to die down in most areas, residents said.

Residents say political leaders in the city agreed a ceasefire on Wednesday but that when direct clashes, sniping by both sides has continued.

Ten Lebanese soldiers have been wounded in efforts to stop the violence in Tripoli this week. A previous round of fighting in June killed 15 people.