By Khaled Yacoub Oweis TRIPOLI, Lebanon, May 12 (Reuters) - Businesses shut down and traffic emptied in Lebanon's second city on Monday when a street battle broke out between pro-government Sunni Muslim fighters and members of an Alawite minority loyal to Syria. "No one knows what is going on in Tripoli anymore. Every sect and political leader have acquired a militia. Any one can get stopped and be asked for their identity," Saleh Aref told Reuters as he pulled down the shutters of his accessories shop. The ancient city, famed for its crusader castle, souks and Arabic sweets, is the latest theatre of fighting that has killed more than 80 people across Lebanon in the last six days. Tripoli is predominantly Sunni with historic trading and family links to Syria. A few thousand Alawites live in the Jebel Mohsen neighbourhood on a hill overlooking the city. Christian villages are nestled nearby, among the foothills of the Cedar mountain range. Alawite militiamen exchanged rocket-propelled grenades and machinegun fire with pro-government Sunni fighters in the Bab Tebbaneh district closer to the seaside. A burnt car laid on a main roundabout and the thoroughfare was littered with spent rounds. Six people were wounded in the fighting. "We do not want a sectarian war but if they do, we are ready. We are Lebanese but proud with our links to Syria," said Saleh Abdul Latif, an Alawite district leader. The sentiment was echoed on the opposite side with Sunnis saying the Alawites were trying to revive the influence of Syria, which peaked between the end of Lebanon's civil war in 1990 and 2005 when Syrian forces left the country. Bashar al-Assad, Syria's president, is from the Alawite sect. NO END "Tripoli is heading toward a massacre if the Alawites do not give up their weapons. I am not saying every Alawite is a Syrian agent, but they should move to avoid more bloodshed," one man, an engineer, who asked not to be named, said. "They want us to sit and do nothing but watch our city paralysed by their terrorism. The army must take responsibility in ending this," said Alaa Nader while sipping coffee at Pinky cafe, a hangout for intellectuals and journalists. The Lebanese army cut off main roads leading to the area of the fighting but was mostly powerless to stop it. Militiamen roamed the streets, their guns dangling from Range Rovers. "Our eyes are devoted to Sheikh Saad," one fighter yelled, referring to Saad al-Hariri, Lebanon's parliamentary majority leader and son of late premier Rafik al-Hariri, whose assassination in 2005 plunged the country into political upheaval. The elder Hariri wrestled power in Tripoli from the Karami family, an ally of Syria and Hezbollah. The family's scion Rashid Karami said the takeover of Beirut by Hezbollah and its allies, should not be repeated in Tripoli, and called for his fighters to leave the streets. But few had hope that peace would prevail soon, fearing a repeat of the 1975-1990 civil war. "It is a civil war atmosphere, but with some different players," said a manager at Hallab sweetshop, which has been making trademark pastries since 1881 "Before it was Sunnis against Christian militias in Tripoli," he said. "Now it is Sunnis against Alawites. There is no end."
A poster marking "Nakba" is seen in Yarmouk camp near Damascus May 12, 2008. On Thursday, Palestinians will mark the 60th anniversary of Nakba or catastrophe, commemorating when hundreds of thousands ...
