Seven people were killed in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli yesterday in fighting between supporters and opponents of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, security and medical sources said.

Tripoli, like much of Lebanon, is divided along sectarian lines and is only 50 kilometres from the Syrian border. Its majority Sunni Muslims, who back the Syrian rebels, often clash with the minority from Assad’s Alawite sect.

Four civilians, including an elderly man, were shot dead by snipers yesterday, they said. Eleven others were wounded.

Three people who were wounded in earlier clashes died, including two gunmen who were hit in overnight clashes between fighters from the Sunni district of Bab al-Tabbaneh and the Alawite neighbourhood of Jebel Mohsen, the sources said.

Lebanon’s population is deeply divided over the Syrian war. Shi’ite militant and political movement Hizbollah and its allies support Assad while many of the country’s Sunnis back the revolt.

Tripoli’s Sunnis and Alawites have clashed sporadically for decades but the Syrian conflict has worsened tensions, with each side accusing the other of using the city as a base for sending fighters and weapons in and out of Syria.

Lebanon’s Parliament gave a new Cabinet a vote of confidence on Thursday. But the country suffers regular car bombings and rocket attacks, as well as incursions by the Syrian army in pursuit of rebels who move across the border.