Violent spillover from Syria kills two in northern Lebanon

TRIPOLI - Two people died in the northern city of Tripoli on Monday, security and medical sources said, in fighting between supporters and opponents of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and the Lebanese army which has spilled over from the war next door.

Lebanon, which is plagued by sectarian tension, is struggling to curb violence stemming from the civil war in Syria, where more than 100,000 people have been killed in the past 2-1/2 years.

The dead were from the Sunni district of Bab al-Tabbaneh, where gunmen on Monday clashed with the Lebanese army, which is trying to curb the violence from Syria. Twelve people from the area were also wounded, the sources said.

A soldier and a resident of Jebel Mohsen, the nearby Alawite enclave which the army entered on Sunday as part of an increased presence throughout the city were also wounded, residents said.

The clashes, which broke out last Tuesday and continued over the weekend, have killed 17 people and wounded more than 100.

Sunni Muslims and Shi'ites from Assad's Alawite sect have clashed in Tripoli on and off for decades, but the Syrian conflict has reopened old wounds, with each side accusing the other of using the city as a base for sending fighters and weapons in and out of Syria.