The Battle of Sidón

The bloody clashes between the Lebanese army and the followers of Imam Al Asir with Sunni militants in the country's south left at least 38 people dead, 50 wounded, and part of the historic port city of Sidón under the rubble. Soldiers arrested 110 suspected extremist Islamists. It was the largest armed conflict in Lebanon since the war started more than two years ago. Clashes between the army and the followers of Imam Al Asir began last Sunday about 40 miles south of Beirut on the Mediterranean Sea , in the heart of Sidón . Sidón has a predominantly Sunni's population but is entrenched into a Shiite -majority region with strong presence of the Shiite Islamist movement Hezbollah and its armed militia . For months Sunni Imam Al Asir used the Bilal bin Rabah mosque in the district of Abra to preach against Hezbollah and Syrian involvement in the conflict in support of President Bashar Al Assad. Despite representing a motley ideological arch , most of today fighting insurgents in Syria to overthrow the Assad government are Sunni , and many of the Syrians fled to Lebanon settled in Palestinian refugee camps , as the that exists in the outskirts of Sidón . The Syrian National Coalition , a leading Syrian opposition coalitions abroad Sidón clashes linked to the civil war in Syria and urged Syrian refugees in Lebanon not to get involved in the Syrian internal conflict and avoid areas controlled by Hezbollah. The tension in Sidón spread north of the country, cum shots in the air and on the streets of the city of Tripoli , the epicenter of violence hitherto imported into Lebanon from Syria.