On Friday afternoon [Jan. 18], the city of Tripoli witnessed a security incident that is the first of its kind in Lebanon since the Lebanese Civil War ended in 1990.
Sunni Salafist groups were demonstrating at a square in Lebanon’s second largest city — after the capital, Beirut — to demand the release of their comrades who have been sitting in Lebanese prisons since 2007. These members were arrested for being involved in a violent battle that happened between May 20 and Sept. 5, 2007 at a Palestinian refugee camp located near Tripoli, known as the Nahr al-Bared camp. The battle was between the Lebanese army and a fundamentalist al-Qaeda-affiliated jihadist group, known as Fatah al-Islam.