TRIPOLI: The Lebanese army on Sunday pounded militants holed up in Tripoli, and vowed to crush them, as gunmen near the coastal city killed four soldiers in an ambush.

Tripoli, Lebanon’s second biggest city, has seen repeated clashes between Sunni militants sympathetic to rebel fighters in neighbouring Syria and Alawis loyal to the Damascus regime.

The Sunnis have recently focussed their attacks on the army over its alleged support for Damascus ally Hezbollah.

The latest clashes erupted on Friday at the northern city’s historic market, which is a major tourist attraction.

On Sunday army mortar fire battered the impoverished, outlying neighbourhood of Bab al-Tebbaneh, where the Islamists are located.

Dozens of Bab al-Tebbaneh houses were reportedly in flames due to the shelling, and as many ambulances were seen ferrying wounded civilians out of the district.

“We are going through with this operation to the end,” a military source said.

Since the violence broke out in central Tripoli on Friday, the army has pushed the gunmen back to their stronghold in Bab al-Tebbaneh and cornered them.

Five civilians have been killed in three days, among them a child and two adults on Sunday, said a security official.

On Sunday evening, an informal truce mediated by clerics allowed dozens of families previously besieged in the district to escape.

But fighting continued along the main frontline, which is ironically named Syria Street.

Bab al-Tebbaneh is home to some 100,000 people, while the parts of the neighbourhood where the fighting is worst is usually inhabited by some 15,000.

The journalist said that even in areas far from the fighting, the streets were empty, with people too fearful to leave their homes.

The authorities in Tripoli have announced that schools and universities will be closed on Monday.

The reports came as the army said gunmen ambushed a patrol north of Tripoli, killing four soldiers.

“This afternoon (Sunday), an army unit was targeted by a terrorist group while deploying in Duhur al-Mohammara. A clash broke out, which caused several casualties in the (militants’) ranks, while four soldiers including two officers were martyred,” said the statement.

It came after the army said gunmen kidnapped a soldier from his Tripoli home, the second seized in northern Lebanon at the weekend.

Al Qaeda’s Syrian affiliate meanwhile threatened to kill Lebanese soldiers it captured in fighting in August unless the army halts Tripoli operations.

Al-Nusra Front has previously executed one captive Lebanese soldier.

“We warn the Lebanese army against any military escalation targeting Sunnis in Tripoli,” it said in a statement.

“We call on it to lift its siege and accept a peaceful solution, or else we will be forced in the coming hours to bring closure to the issue of the soldiers we are holding hostage, given that they are prisoners of war”. Nusra initially threatened to start executing its prisoners from 0800 GMT but then issued a second statement extending the deadline to 1200 GMT.

By Sunday evening, the jihadist group had not carried out its threat.

Al-Nusra and rival jihadists of the Islamic State group captured 30 Lebanese soldiers and police in fighting around the eastern town of Arsal, close to the Syrian border, in August. IS has since executed two of its captives.

Al-Nusra has previously demanded that in return for the release of its prisoners, Shiite militant group Hezbollah end its intervention in Syria on the side of President Bashar al-Assad’s regime and that Lebanon free jailed Islamists.

The Lebanese government has so far rejected the terms. Islamist gunmen in Tripoli have carried out repeated attacks against the army, accusing it of cooperating with Hezbollah.

The August fighting in Arsal — a Sunni enclave within the mainly Shia Bekaa Valley border region — was the most serious in Lebanon since the Syrian conflict erupted in March 2011.

Published in Dawn, October 27th, 2014