TRIPOLI, Lebanon: At least 33 people were wounded in running clashes between pro- and anti-Damascus regime supporters in Lebanon’s second largest city of Tripoli, security and army officials said on Tuesday.

The fighting erupted days after a wave of kidnappings targeting Syrians in Lebanon, in a new sign that violence in neighboring Syria is exacerbating tensions in the small Mediterranean country.

Lebanon lived under three decades of Syrian hegemony and remains deeply divided between supporters and opponents of Damascus.

Exchanges of gunfire erupted on Monday and continued through the night between Tripoli’s mainly Sunni district of Bab el-Tebbaneh and the largely Alawite area of Jabal Mohsen.

“Clashes are ongoing, and the army is currently intervening,” a military official told AFP.

Several houses caught fire and cars were damaged in the fighting, which has added to fears that the conflict in Syria is increasingly spilling over into Lebanon, destabilising the already fragile security situation.

Ten soldiers were wounded as were 23 civilians, both Sunni and Alawite, security and army officials said.

The violence was centerd around the aptly named Syria Street, the symbolic “dividing line” between the rival Tripoli districts, and many civilians have fled the area.

The Sunni-majority port city has been the scene of intense and sometimes deadly clashes between Sunni supporters of the anti-Syrian opposition and Alawite Muslims loyal to a Hezbollah-led alliance backed by Iran and Syria.

Syrian President Bashar Assad, who is fighting an increasingly bloody 17-month uprising against his regime, hails from the Alawite community, an offshoot of Shiite Islam.

The fighting in Tripoli erupted after a wave of mass kidnappings of Syrians in Lebanon, with the opposition Syrian National Council accusing the authorities of failing to act over the attacks.

“Syrians in Lebanon have been abducted by political parties, and subject to arbitrary arrests by security agents, without the authorities so much as lifting a finger,” the SNC said in a statement, implicitly blaming Hezbollah.

Last week, an armed Shiite clan claimed it had kidnapped around 20 Syrians in retaliation for the abduction of a family member by a Syrian rebel group, which accused him of being a Hezbollah sniper.

Many more were reportedly seized as rioters went on the rampage in Beirut, attacking shops and cars belonging to Syrians.

Hezbollah, considered the most powerful military force in Lebanon, has denied any connection with the clan member or the kidnappings.

The SNC also said Lebanese army intelligence on Monday raided the home of a Syrian humanitarian activist and arrested two of his colleagues, and that they also arrested a Syrian lawyer.

President Michel Sleiman on Tuesday urged Lebanon’s judiciary to “issue immediate arrest warrants for the kidnappers” and called on security officials to “act to free those abducted.”

New York-based Human Rights Watch called on the Lebanese authorities to investigate and prosecute those responsible for the kidnappings.

“Lebanese authorities need to enforce the law and end impunity for kidnappings and other violent acts carried out against Syrian citizens in the name of reprisal,” said Nadim Houry, HRW’s deputy Middle East director.