Ammon News - TRIPOLI (The Daily Star) - Sniper fire in Tripoli Saturday claimed the lives of at least two people as tensions escalated between rival neighborhoods in the northern Lebanese city, security sources said.

They said several other people were wounded, including one soldier, as a result of sniper fire.

The sniping took place in the mainly Sunni areas of Riva and Baqqar and the predominately Alawite neighborhood of Jabal Mohsen.

The sources said the Lebanese Army was responding to the sources of fire.

In a separate incident near the state-run hospital in Qibbeh, masked gunmen opened fire on soldiers guarding a military barracks. There were no casualties.

Earlier, an Israeli armored personnel carrier that had served as a war monument near Abu Ali Roundabout was removed by the Army after it was vandalized. Hezbollah had gifted the city the monument in 2000 following the withdrawal of Israeli troops from south Lebanon.