Lebanese army raids homes of Islamic State suspects

The Lebanese army have raided homes in Tripoli, Lebanon, of people with alleged links to the Islamic State (IS) and other militant groups. The army said that they’ve arrested 20 people since Friday. and that at least eight people, including soldiers, have been killed in clashes.

Saturday’s house raids follow fierce clashes between troops and gunemn in the city’s historic marketplace. Security officials said that two civilian bystanders, a father and son, were killed and twenty people, including a Lebanese journalist, were injured. An unknown number of fighters that the Lebanese army said have links with IS were also killed.

On Saturday, an army patrol was attached in the Sunni Bab al-Tabbaneh neighbourhood in Tripoli, the Lebanese National News Agency reported. Gunshots were fired but no casualties were reported. A Lebanese journalist later reporter shelling and heavy gunfire as the Lebanese army assaulted the gunmens’ positions in the marketplace. A security official told the news agency that most of the fighters were Lebanese.  

"Some of them are Islamists, while others are wanted thugs," he said.

Clashes in Tripoli have broken out before between Sunni fighters who back the Syrian revels and Alawites who back the Syrian government. Sunni fighters have also accused Lebanon’s army of cooperating with the Shia group Hezbollah, which has reportedly sent thousands of fighters into neighbouring Syria to support embattled President Bashar al-Assad. Yet this weekend was the first time since civil war broke out in Syria that violence spread to the marketplace, a historic location that is on UNESCO’s shortlist as a possible nomination for a world heritage site. Several shops in the covered market have been burned down following the fighting.