Clashes in Lebanon leave six dead

Six people were killed in clashes in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli and gunmen attacked a cleric in the southern port of Sidon on Monday, in further violence stoked by civil war in neighbouring Syria.

The clashes in Tripoli erupted between gunmen sympathetic to the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad and his Alawite supporters.

In Sidon, gunmen fired at the Sunni cleric Maher Hammoud as he headed towards his mosque for dawn prayers. He is seen as close to Hezbollah and has criticised a prominent Islamist, Sheikh Ahmed al-Assir.

REUTERS