BEIRUT-
Syria-related clashes between supporters and opponents of Syrian President Bashar Assad have prompted Lebanese troops to deploy to a Beirut neighbourhood to calm tensions.
Soldiers in armoured personnel carriers and Humvees fanned across the predominantly Sunni neighbourhood of Tariq Jadideh on Sunday morning.
The deployment came after rival Sunni gunmen exchanged gunfire and rocket-propelled-grenades for several hours in the area, in the worst fighting in the Lebanese capital in nearly two years.
Shaker Birjawi, head of the pro-Assad Arab Movement Party, says four of his followers were wounded in the fighting. State-run National News Agency says Birjawi’s AMP fought against rival Sunni gunmen.
The fighting comes after days of clashes, also related to the civil war next door in Syria, killed 25 people in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli