[An Nahar] Armed festivities renewed on Sunday afternoon in Tripoli...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn...
, shattering a cautious calm that had engulfed the city since dawn, as a number of MPs, Mohammedan holy mans and figures called for a ceasefire and rejected attacks on the army.
"Clashes have escalated between Bab al-Tabbaneh and Jabal Mohsen and the army is shooting at the sources of gunfire," al-Jadeed television reported in the evening.
"Three shells fell on the vegetable market-Omari Street frontier in Tripoli amid heavy gunfire," it said.
In the afternoon, Voice of Leb radio (100.5) said "festivities have renewed in Baal al-Darawish and Bab al-Tabbaneh."
Meanwhile,
...back at the revival hall, the pastor had finally been wrestled from the pulpit.
Y'got the wrong guy!he yelled just before Sergeant Malone's billy club landed...
Meanwhile,
...back at the Esquimeau village Jack was learning how to rub noses with Nootka's wife......
Tripoli's leaders and figures held a meeting at MP Mohammed Kabbara's residence and issued a statement stressing "the need to seek pacification, act wisely and exert efforts to reach an immediate ceasefire."
They said a truce would "deprive those plotting against the city of a chance to drag it into a meaningless battle that is not in anyone's interest."
The meeting was attended by Social Affairs Minister Rashid Derbas, Mustaqbal
... the Future Movement, political party led by Saad Hariri...
bloc MPs Kabbara, Samir al-Jisr, Moein al-Merehbi and Khaled al-Daher; Mohammedan holy mans Salem al-Rafehi, Zakaria al-Masri, Nabil Rahim and Khaled al-Sayyed; and the Jamaa Islamiya's political official in the North Hasan Khayyal.
"Entire Tripoli wants to live under the authority of the state, safely and securely, but there must be justice, fairness and balance among everyone, and it rejects that the city's sons be dragged into a confrontation with the army and security forces," the conferees said.
They also stressed "the need to restore confidence between the city's sons and military and security institutions, topped by the Lebanese Army, and to conduct the necessary investigations into reports about summary executions of a number of desperados," urging security forces to "reevaluate the taken measures and not to use excessive force."
The conferees condemned "any attack on the Lebanese Army," underlining that "restoring confidence in security forces would reflect positively on Tripoli and its security and stability."
The politicians and leaders also called for "bringing to justice all the security violators and outlaws, starting with those involved in carrying out the terrorist bombings that targeted al-Taqwa and al-Salam mosques."
They revealed that "after the cabinet wins the vote of confidence, a Tripoli delegation will visit the three presidents and relevant officials to put them in the picture of the events."
Earlier on Sunday, a soldier was killed in a grenade attack on the army in Tripoli, raising to 13 the corpse count from the latest round of festivities between the rival districts of Bab al-Tabbaneh and Jabal Mohsen.
The army command said in a communique issued on Sunday that a "grenade attack on an army personnel carrier in al-Mallouleh area at 9:30 p.m. killed a soldier."
The statement stressed that the army is still responding to the sources of fire in the northern city.
Battles subsided on Sunday at dawn after a rough night in the city despite intermittent sniper gunshots operating around Syria street, which separates the Alawite enclave of Jabal Mohsen from the Sunni district of Bab al-Tabbaneh.
President Michel Suleiman
...before assuming office as President, he held the position of commander of the Leb Armed Forces. That was after the previous commander, the loathesome Emile Lahoud, took office as president in November of 1998. Likely the next president of Leb will be whoever's commander of the armed forces, too...
expressed regret on Sunday over the victims of the festivities in Tripoli.
He stressed "on the importance of being aware amid this critical stage that Leb and the Lebanese should be dissociated from its negative repercussions."
Suleiman reiterated calls from "consensus and dialogue... to surpass this stage safely."
The state-run National News Agency reported that the festivities injured around 57 people.
Bab al-Tabbaneh residents staged demonstrations on Saturday night to protest the ongoing situation in the city.
The latest fighting broke out on Thursday after a Sunni man was killed by unknown gunnies on a cycle of violence in central Tripoli.
But tensions between the districts have run high for decades, only increasing with the outbreak of the conflict in Syria in March 2011, where Alawite
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneckal-Assad
Oppressor of the Syrians and the Lebs...
faces a Sunni-dominated uprising.
The Bab al-Tabbaneh neighborhood backs the revolt, while residents in Jabal Mohsen support the Syrian regime.
The army has deployed in the city, arresting several people overnight and responding to sources of fire.
The violence between two districts of the city caused local schools to close and cut traffic flow in the city to a trickle.