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On Monday, sporadic violence in Lebanon broke out in wake of the Friday assassination of Wissam al-Hassan, a top Lebanese security official and longtime critic of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Reuters is already calling the car bomb attack on Hassan and seven others "the most destabilizing attack in Lebanon" since the assassination of former prime minister Rafik al-Hariri in 2005. The civil war in neighboring Syria already divided Lebanon's rival Shi'ite and Sunni sects against each other (one side supporting Assad who belongs to the Shi'ite-based Alawite sect, the other side supporting Syria's Sunni opposition groups), but the killing of Hassan has poured gasoline on the pre-existing sectarian divisions. Here are the latest reports out the country:
Explosions rock Beirut. Bloomberg's Donna Abu-Nasr reports that "scattered gunfire and at least one explosion from a rocket-propelled grenade" reverberated in Beirut today, with the official National News Agency reporting at least six injuries. "Smoke from burning tires and trash bins rose from the mostly Sunni area of Beirut’s Tareek al-Jadida and Cornich al-Mazra. The news agency reported heavy gunfire in that area today." The explosions follow the deaths of three people, including one child, who died on Saturday as sniper fire broke out in the northern city of Tripoli. Another violent exchange in Southern Lebanon resulted in the death of a man in Wadi Zaina. Today, Sunni Muslims have clashed with Lebanese soldiers across the country. Reuters has captured video from some of the infighting below: