5 die as Assad backers, foes clash in Lebanon

BEIRUT: Opponents and supporters of Syrian President Bashar Assad traded heavy machine gun fire and mortar shells in the Lebanese port city of Tripoli, leaving five people dead in what was described as some of the heaviest fighting there in years, officials said yesterday.
Tripoli has been a frequent flashpoint of sectarian tensions stoked by the civil war in neighboring Syria. The latest overnight deaths brought to 16 the number of people killed in clashes there this week, and the overall number of wounded rose to 190, said a security official who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with military regulations.
In comments by Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency, Cabinet minister Faisal Karami said the fighting was among the worst in the city since Lebanon’s 15-year civil war that ended in 1990.
Regime supporters and opponents live close to each other in the city. The divisions largely run along ethnic lines, with many Sunnis supporting the Syrian fighters and Alawites backing the regime. Assad is an Alawite.
Fighting in Qusair continued for a fifth day yesterday, after Syrian opposition leaders urged fighters from elsewhere to converge on the town.
Meanwhile, 75 fighters from Lebanon's Hezbollah have been killed in Syria since they first became involved in the country's war months ago, a source close to the militant group said yesterday.
"There have been 57 killed and 18 others who have died of their wounds since the start of its (Hezbollah's) participation in the war in Syria," the source told AFP.
In another development, Syria’s outgoing opposition chief published an initiative for his war-torn country yesterday that would grant President Bashar Assad a safe exit, and urged dissident factions to adopt his plan.
Moaz Al-Khatib published his initiative on Facebook, as the main National Coalition he headed until March gathered in Istanbul to choose a new leader and discuss a US-Russian peace initiative dubbed Geneva 2.
Under Al-Khatib’s initiative, Assad would have 20 days from Thursday to give “his acceptance of a peaceful transition of authority.”
After accepting, Assad would have one month to hand over power to either Prime Minister Wael Al-Halqi or Vice President Farouk Al-Sharaa, who would then govern Syria for a transitional period of 100 days.