Sunni-Alawite fighting erupts in Lebanese port city

BEIRUT: Two people were killed when fighting erupted overnight in the Lebanese city of Tripoli between members of the Alawite minority loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad and members of the Sunni majority, witnesses and security officials said on Sunday.
Rocket-propelled grenades and automatic rifles were used in the fighting in an Alawite enclave and surrounding Sunni neighborhoods in the port city, 70 km (44 miles) north of Beirut.
“The clashes peaked at dawn. The sound of gunfire is still echoing in the city,” a Lebanese security official said.
The fighting underlines how sectarian tensions in Syria could spill over to neighboring Lebanon.
A small Alawite minority are concentrated in Tripoli, a conservative Sunni city where many residents have been enraged by Assad’s crackdown on the 14-month revolt against 42 years of rule by the Assad family and their Alawite establishment.
Syria’s Sunni majority are at the forefront of the uprising against Assad, whose sect is an offshoot of Shiite Islam.
Syrian troops withdrew from Lebanon under international pressure in 2005 after a 29-year presence, but Assad retains big influence in the small but geopolitically important country through his main ally, the Shiite guerrilla group Hezbollah, the only Lebanese party that has an officially approved arsenal.