Clashes in Tripoli…

A two-hour ceasefire has been declared in Tripoli to evacuate civilians, after deadly clashes between ISIS militants and the army rocked the city. After ISIS militants fired on military posts (in retaliation for the arrest Thursday of Ahmad Salim Mikati, an alleged ISIS commander), they fled into the alleyways of the old souks–where the clashes continued. My friend in Tripoli said the city is a “war zone”–he heard the sounds of rocket-propelled grenade explosions and machine-guns throughout the night. In Dinnieh, also in northern Lebanon, one soldier was killed and another wounded when militants ambushed an Army patrol unit earlier today. Meanwhile, the Nusra Front is warning of a civil war in Lebanon. In response to this latest violence, North Lebanon Mufti Sheikh Malek al-Shaar canceled a planned Muslim-Christian summit with the country’s main religious figures–which was supposed to meet today in Tripoli…