Clashes between Sunni Muslim and Alawite militias have killed at least 17 people in the Lebanese city of Tripoli recently, in perhaps the worst spillover of violence from the civil war in neighboring Syria, The New York Times reported Monday, December 10. Tripoli, Lebanon’s second-largest city, has long been the scene of conflict between Sunni Muslims in the city’s Bab al-Tabbaneh neighborhood and Alawites in the hilltop section of Jabal Mohsen. The latest conflict began after a number of Sunni fighters from northern Lebanon were killed in an ambush by pro-government forces as they tried to enter Syria to join opposition fighters. Sunnis in Tripoli, angry over videos that purported to show the men’s bodies being stabbed and kicked, attacked Alawites, starting days of clashes between militias wielding rifles and rocket-propelled grenades. Lebanese news media put the death toll at 17.