TRIPOLI, Lebanon: A policeman was shot and killed by masked gunmen in Tripoli Friday, a day after an influential cleric called for Sunni youth to rise up and “defend their rights.”
Tripoli has been plagued by a series of Syria-linked clashes, with militant groups increasingly targeting the Army and security forces, which have been tasked with keeping the peace in the restive northern city.
Internal Security Forces Adjutant Butros al-Bayea was killed instantly by multiple bullets to the head, neck and chest after assailants opened fire on his Range Rover while traveling along the Majdlaya highway that links Tripoli to Zghorta, security sources said.
The vehicle crashed down into the nearby Abu Ali River.
The deadly attack came only one day after assailants shot to death a Lebanese Army officer in Tripoli. Masked gunmen on a motorcycle shot Warrant Officer Fadi Ali Jbeili in the back from close range Thursday. He was rushed to hospital where he died soon after.
Less than an hour later, gunmen fired an AK-47 round toward police Cpl. Samer Dandashi, but missed their target, the security sources said.
Separately, a man from the Al-Khazma family was severely wounded when an unknown assailant stabbed him repeatedly in the Al-Tal neighborhood. He was transferred to the Islamic Hospital.
Tensions ran high Friday hours after Tripoli-based Dai al-Islam al-Shahal, the founder of the Salafist Movement in north Lebanon, released a recording, urging Sunnis to rise to the occasion and defend their rights.
"I call on Sunni youth to prepare [themselves] because the time has come," he said.
"Tomorrow [Friday] is the day to turn the page and open a new one to make them understand that we are an umma [Islamic nation] that defends its rights ... so let’s go, Sunni youth, victory is upon us,” Shahal added.
The past few days have been marked by sporadic sniper fire and isolated attacks, capping off over a week of clashes between supporters and opponents of Syrian President Bashar Assad which killed at least 30 people.
Tripoli has been the scene of at least 20 rounds of armed clashes linked to the three-year-old crisis in neighboring Syria. The fighting has pitted Sunni gunmen in Bab al-Tabbaneh, who support Syrian rebels, against the Alawite minority in Jabal Mohsen, which enjoys close ties with the Syrian regime.
The attacks against the Army and the police officer coincide with Cabinet’s directions to the Lebanese Army and security forces to seize stockpiled arms and crack down on gunmen in the Bekaa Valley and Tripoli as part of a plan to end the violence.
Meanwhile, relatives of men killed in Syria held a protest and blocked the road leading to the border town of Abboudiyeh, demanding the repatriation of bodies.
The protesters claimed that some 50 Lebanese who fought alongside rebel groups against regime forces were killed in fierce battles for the historic citadel known as Krak des Chevaliers in Homs.
On March 20, the Syrian army retook the famed crusader castle, which was used by rebels as a hideout.
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