- Gunmen exchange fire in Beirut and northern city of Tripoli
- Troops are brought into the capital to try and restore order
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Four people including a nine-year-old girl were killed in Lebanon's northern city of Tripoli today as gunmen exchanged fire, deepening a political crisis following the assassination of a senior intelligence official.
Twelve people were also wounded in the incident, while in southern Beirut five people were wounded in fighting between Lebanese troops and gunmen.
The violence has heightened fears that the civil war in neighbouring Syria could be spreading into Lebanon, upsetting its delicate political balance and threatening to usher in a new era of sectarian bloodshed.
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Fighting: Black smoke billows during clashes in Tripoli's Bab al Tabanneh district today. Four people were killed in the north Lebanon city overnight
Easy rider: A Lebanese man rides his motorcycle between a burning tire and rubbish containers laid by Sunni protesters in Beirut today after clashes between Sunni and Shiite gunmen
Major security operation: Lebanese soldiers deploy in Beirut this morning
Lebanon has been boiling over since Friday after Brigadier General Wissam al-Hassan, an intelligence chief opposed to the Syrian leadership, was assassinated in a car bombing.
Many politicians have accused Syria of being behind the killing and angry protesters tried to storm the government palace after Hassan's funeral yesterday.
Opposition leaders and their supporters want Prime Minister Najib Mikati to resign, saying he is too close to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his Lebanese militant ally Hezbollah, which is part of Mikati's government.
Today's clashes in Beirut took place on the edge of Tariq al-Jadida, a Sunni Muslim district that neighbours Shi'ite Muslim suburbs in the south of the capital.
Residents had earlier reported heavy overnight gunfire around Tariq al-Jadida between gunmen armed with rifles and rocket-propelled grenades.
In Tripoli, a nine-year-old girl shot by a sniper was one of three people killed in overnight clashes. Nine people were wounded, medical and security sources said.
The sources said the two dead men were from the Sunni Muslim district of Bab al-Tabbaneh and were killed after gunmen there exchanged rocket and gunfire with the mainly Alawite neighbourhood of Jebel Mohsen.
Dead end: A Sunni gunman instructs a driver to turn around on a blocked street leading to a Shiite neighborhood in Beirut
Clearing up: Soldiers remove a makeshift roadblock in Beirut
Turmoil: Lebanon has been boiling over since Friday after Brigadier General Wissam al-Hassan (left), an intelligence chief opposed to the Syrian leadership, was assassinated in a car bombing
In a later incident this morning, a woman was killed and three people wounded by gunfire in the Alawite district. Tripoli has frequently been hit by clashes between Sunnis and Alawites sympathetic to different sides in the Syria war.
Thousands of people had turned out in Beirut's downtown Martyrs' Square for Hassan's funeral on Sunday but that ended in violence, with security forces firing tear gas and shots in the air as hundreds tried to storm the prime minister's office.
Protesters overnight blocked roads in Beirut with burning tyres, including the highway to the airport.
The capital was noticeably quieter than normal today. Many people stayed home for fear of violence and streets were free of the usual traffic chaos. Memories are still vivid here of the death and destruction of Lebanon's 1975-90 civil war.
Heavily-armed soldiers and police were out in force at street junctions and government buildings.
Opposition leaders have urged their supporters to refrain from any more violence.
Former prime minister Saad al-Hariri said on the Future Television channel last night: 'We want peace, the government should fall, but we want that in a peaceful way. I call on all those who are in the streets to pull back.'
The crisis in Lebanon underscores local and international concern that the 19-month-old uprising against Assad is dragging in Syria's neighbours.
Demonstration: A Lebanese protester throws a tear gas canister back at security forces during clashes after the funeral of Wissam al-Hassan yesterday
Unrest: Smoke bombs are set off near an abandoned police cordon
Ring of steel: Security forces reinforce the barriers during clashes with protesters who were trying to storm the government building in Beirut
Rage: A protester gestures to security forces. Soldiers fired guns and tear gas to push back hundreds of protesters who broke through a police cordon
Sunni-led rebels are fighting to overthrow Assad, who is from the Alawite minority that has its roots in Shi'ite Islam. Lebanon's religious communities are divided between those that support Assad and those that back the rebels.
Hassan, 47, was a senior intelligence official who had helped uncover a bomb plot that led to the arrest and indictment in August of a pro-Assad former Lebanese minister.
A Sunni Muslim, he also led an investigation that implicated Syria and the Shi'ite Hezbollah in the 2005 assassination of Rafik al-Hariri, a former prime minister of Lebanon.
Damascus and Hezbollah have condemned Hassan's killing.
Mikati said on Saturday he had offered to resign to make way for a government of national unity, but that he had accepted a request by President Michel Suleiman to stay in office to allow time for talks on a way out of the political crisis.
Ambassadors from Britain, the U.S., China, Russia and France met Suleiman today and appealed to Lebanese leaders to resolve the crisis peacefully.
Derek Plumbly, the UN Special Coordinator for Lebanon, who also attended the talks, said the group condemned 'any attempt to destabilise Lebanon through political assassination' and called on all parties in the country to preserve national unity.
They expressed support for Suleiman's efforts to start a dialogue among politicians to resolve the crisis.
Huge crowds swell as the coffins arrive in downtown Beirut during their funeral procession
People gather holding flags as members of the Internal Security Forces carry the coffin through Martyrs' Square in downtown Beirut
Tribute: Members of Lebanese Internal Security Forces carry the coffin, covered with a Lebanese flag
Pain: The mother (left) and wife (right) of Wissam al-Hassan mourn during the official ceremony
I've heard about the vibrant city of Tripoli... ...I'm told it is a wonderful place for a holiday... ...especially at this time of year.
- pjthebiz , darkpool, 22/10/2012 20:23
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