By KUNA,
Beirut : Lebanese Army troops equipped with armor vehicles and automatic guns took up positions in the heart of the northern city of Tripoli on Sunday disengaging warring gunmen who had turned the city’s central region into a battle zone.
A military source told Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) that the government regular foces took control of locations between the neighboring districts of Bab Al-Tabbanah and Baal Mohsen.
Bab Al-Tabbanah is controlled by gunmen loyal to Saad Al-Hariri, the chief of the March 14 movement, and Baal Mohsen is a hotbed for Alawite gunmen loyal to the opposition camp, led by Hezbollah.
The region had been a scene of fighting during the civil war that broke out in 1975 and ended in 1990.
The army troops were also deployed in the provincial capital of Akkar province following identical violence pitting Al-Hariri’s loyalists against gunmen of the opposition Syrian Social National Party (SSNP).