Tensions rise in Lebanon as Sunnis link shootings to Syria

In Lebanon a Sunni cleric has been shot dead by soldiers along with another member of a political alliance against Syria’s president Bashar al-Assad.

Sheikh Ahmed Abdul Wahid and Khalid Miraib were shot in their car as it sped through a checkpoint without stopping. They were members of the March 14 Alliance.

Many Sunni Muslims in the north sympathise with the the uprising against Assad in neighbouring Syria and their anger boiled over on to the streets. They accuse the Lebanese army of taking orders from Damascus.

This latest incident happened in the northern region of Akkar. Last week there was fighting between government troops and gunmen in a Sunni Muslim district in Tripoli, also in the north.

In Syria itself a roadside bomb exploded on Sunday around 150 metres from a UN convoy in which the head of the observer mission was travelling. It happened in the Douma district of Damascus but no casualties have been reported.

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