2 killed in post-Damascus blast gunfire in Tripoli

Two people, including a teenager, were killed and five others wounded by gunfire in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli following the Damascus bombing that killed three top Syrian defense officials, security sources said Thursday. They said Firas Munzir Rustom, 17, died when he was shot in the back by a sniper late Wednesday as he rode a motorcycle near the Nasser mosque in the Sunni neighborhood of Bab al-Tabbaneh, Tripoli. Sniping from the predominantly Alawite district of Jabal Mohsen came in response to celebratory gunfire in Bab al-Tabbaneh following the blast that killed Syrian President Bashar Assad’s son-in-law Assef Shawkat and two key defense officials Wednesday. Another Bab al-Tabbaneh man, identified as 50-something Khaled Fares, was killed earlier Wednesday, also by sniper fire from Jabal Mohsen. Five people were wounded in Tripoli by the celebratory gunfire that rang out shortly after the Damascus suicide blast.