Sept. 30 (Bloomberg) -- A wave of sectarian strife is besetting Lebanon's second-largest city, raising the risk of another nationwide civil war as rivalry between Muslim Sunnis and Shiites spreads across the Middle East.
Yesterday's military-bus bombing in Tripoli, which killed at least five and wounded 24, followed an upsurge in violence in the city that has claimed 40 lives in four months.
There's ``a fierce power struggle'' between Sunnis and Shiites in Tripoli, said Amal Saad-Ghorayeb, author of ``Hizbullah: Politics and Religion,'' a history of the militant Shiite movement. ``The situation has already been seen to be dangerous and is getting more so.''
Tripoli's troubles began in May, when the city's majority Sunnis took up arms against the Alawites, a minority Shiite offshoot allied with Hezbollah, Lebanon's dominant party and militia.
Violence has persisted since the signing of an Alawite- Sunni cease-fire on Sept. 9, which followed failed efforts for a broader ``non-aggression pact'' between the city's Sunnis and Hezbollah. No group claimed responsibility for the bus bombing.
The Sunnis' attacks in Tripoli were retaliation against the Shiite takeover of western parts of Lebanon's capital, Beirut, four months ago. Hezbollah pulled out of the area after winning effective veto power over the cabinet of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, a Sunni.
Disproportionate Power
The Shiites' actions in Beirut were aimed at securing more proportional political influence. They make up 45 percent of the population, Sunnis 30 percent and Christians 25 percent. Yet the country's political system gives all three roughly equal power, guaranteeing each a top post -- prime minister for the Sunnis, president for the Maronite Christians and parliament speaker for the Shiites.
Sunnis regard Shiites as deserters of true Islam because they revere Ali, a cousin of the prophet Mohammed -- a rivalry that goes back 1,400 years.
Last week on satellite television, a leading Sunni preacher, Egyptian-born Youssef Qaradawy, denounced an ``invasion'' by Shiite ``heretics'' of ``Sunni lands.'' Since December, the oil-rich Persian Gulf state of Bahrain, a Sunni- ruled kingdom, has been periodically hit by protests from the majority Shiite population over joblessness and lack of government representation. Minority Shiites in Kuwait have also demonstrated for equal rights.
On Sept. 22, New York-based Human Rights Watch criticized Saudi Arabia for treating the Ismaelis, part of the country's Shiite minority, as ``second-class citizens.''
`Real' and `Growing'
``Sunni-Shiite rivalry is real and it's growing,'' wrote Mark N. Katz, a politics professor at George Mason University in Virginia, in the Sept. 27 issue of Middle East Times.
Shiite-governed Iran backs Hezbollah, as does Syria, which is controlled by the Alawites. On Sept. 23, the Lebanese army warned that Syria was massing 10,000 troops on the border north of Tripoli, raising concerns it would intervene on behalf of the city's Alawites. Syrian officials said the soldiers were just hunting smugglers.
Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil war primarily pitted Christians against Sunnis. The Sunni-Shiite antipathy plays into global rivalries. The U.S. supports the Siniora government and regards Hezbollah as a terrorist organization at the service of Syria and Iran. U.S. allies Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Egypt have warned of the spread of Iran's influence through Shiite surrogates.
Diversion From Israel
For Hezbollah, Sunni antagonism is a diversion from preparations for possible armed conflict with Israel, with which its militia fought a 33-day war in 2006.
``We need good relations with all Lebanese in order to concentrate on resistance'' to the Jewish state, said Imad Awada, a Hezbollah spokesman in the town of Nabatiyeh.
Hezbollah's lead opponents in Tripoli, population 220,000, came from the Salafis, a branch of Sunni Islam akin to Osama Bin Laden's Wahhabi sect. Salafi preacher Bilal Baroudi said the ultimate solution is simple: disarm Hezbollah.
``We are not going to do what the people in Beirut did: stay inside and let Hezbollah take over,'' he said during an interview at a Tripoli mosque. ``They are working for Iran, not Lebanon.'' He said Sunnis should form their own militia.
Such calls put the Siniora government in an awkward position, because it wants all militias banned. Government supporters also fear that Sunni resentment is bolstering the Salafis, whose brand of Islam includes limits on others' religious practices and on women and sometimes violent attacks on perceived heretics. Salafis represent about 10 percent of Tripoli's Sunnis.
`Anti-Hezbollah Banner'
``People feel defenseless, and so the Salafis end up speaking for them,'' said Misbaah Al-Ahdab, 32, a parliament representative from Tripoli. ``If I had it my way, we would not have anything to do with the Salafis, but they are carrying the anti-Hezbollah banner.''
Atop Jebel Mohsen, an Alawite ghetto on a Tripoli hill, bullet holes in walls of tall buildings and fire-gutted apartments revive memories of the civil war.
Asking Sunnis below for directions to the area invites hostile looks, drawn knives and even a pulled pistol. Tripoli's Alawites, numbering about 15,000, say they are caught in the middle because there are few mainstream Shiites in Tripoli to attack.
Rifaat Ali Eid, 30, leader of an Alawite party, said that throughout the summer, workers from Jebel Mohsen could not go to jobs in the city. His militia brought them food purchased with donations from abroad, he said, showing off a check for $50,000 that he indicated came from Australia.
``We're the most convenient targets, the stand-in for Hezbollah,'' he said. ``Our problem can only be solved when the Shiites and Sunnis solve theirs.''
To contact the reporter on this story: Daniel Williams in Beirut at dwilliams41@bloomberg.net.
