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Fresh fighting has erupted in Tripoli a day after at least four people were killed in clashes in the north Lebanese city. Residents fled for cover as supporters of the ruling majority and the Hezbollah-led opposition fired machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades until the early hours on Monday in the Bab al-Tebbaneh and Jabal Mohsen areas of the city.

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Fresh fighting has erupted in Tripoli a day after at least four people were killed in clashes in the north Lebanese city.

Residents fled for cover as supporters of the ruling majority and the Hezbollah-led opposition fired machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades until the early hours on Monday in the Bab al-Tebbaneh and Jabal Mohsen areas of the city.

A man driving along the main road linking Tripoli to Syria was wounded by a stray bullet early in the morning.

A police officer was killed a day earlier by a stray bullet in the al-Qobbe district of Tripoli while three other men were killed during clashes in the Jabal Mohsen district, security officials said.

The fighting came a day after four people were killed and 33 injured when heaving fighting broke out in the city.

The various factions had agreed earlier on Sunday that the Lebanese army should be deployed to maintain security and they would keep their fighters off the streets, but clashes broke out in the afternoon.

Sectarian violence

Zeina Khodr, Al Jazeera’s correspondent in Tripoli, said the situation in Tripoli was “very dangerous”.

“This is not an organised campaign of violence, but local friction,” she said

A Lebanese security official said pro-government Sunni fighters fought a group of Alawites, a branch of Shia Islam which supports Hezbollah, a Shia Lebanese group.

Bab al-Tebbaneh and al-Qobbe are mainly Sunni districts while residents of Jabal Mohsen are predominantly Alawite.

Political stalemate

The violence took place amid stalled efforts by Fouad Siniora, the prime minister, to form a new government of national unity following a deal last month to end a long-running crisis that had brought the country to the brink of civil war.

The deal, brokered in Doha, the capital of Qatar, led to the election of Michel Sleiman, the former army chief, as president.

The accord also called for the formation of a cabinet in which the opposition will have veto power over key decisions as well as a new electoral law.

“Despite the Doha agreement, political wrangling has been continuing,” Khodr said.

“A lot of observers believe as long as there is no governmental structure, how do you expect reconciliation in the streets? Therefore, Lebanon’s problems have not really been solved.”

Muslim fighter killed

A Muslim fighter was critically wounded on Sunday in a blast near the Palestinian refugee camp of Ain el-Helweh in south Lebanon which injured four others, a security official told the AFP new agency.

Imad Yassin, a senior member of the Jund al-Sham group, was wounded along with two of his bodyguards when a charge placed in a rubbish bin exploded in the Taameer Ain el-Helweh area outside the camp, the official said.

A woman and an eight-year-old girl were also slightly wounded in the blast which prompted several families to flee the area.

Tension was high inside the camp with fighters from the mainstream Palestinian Fatah faction deploying to prevent an escalation, an AFP correspondent reported.aljazeera

, Voice of a Nation

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