BEIRUT/TRIPOLI, Lebanon: Shock waves from the Syrian uprising reached new levels in Lebanon Friday as armed clashes rocked the northern city of Tripoli and rattled the country.Gunfire and rocket propelled-grenades were exchanged between the pre-dominantly Alawite Tripoli neighborhood of Jabal Mohsen and mainly Sunni district Bab al-Tabbaneh after midday prayers when 700 people marched from a mosque in Tripoli and demonstrated in the city center against the Syrian government.

Seven people were wounded in the fighting including Jihad Mohammad Sabaa and Khaled Sayadi. Two residents were wounded in the initial fighting while three soldiers were wounded when the Lebanese Army tried to bring the area under control. Two more residents were wounded hours after the clashes when an arms cache exploded in the Abi Samra neighborhood.

The clashes raise fresh concerns about unrest spilling over into Lebanon as violence and turmoil continue to destabilize Syria.

Tension in the area escalated after residents of Bab al-Tabbaneh briefly hung a banner bearing the word “slaughterer” Thursday night targeted at President Bashar Assad.

The fighting was sparked Friday when a grenade was thrown on Syria Street which separates the two neighborhoods, the residents said.

Families fled their homes during the fighting, streets were deserted and shops were closed. The Lebanese Army deployed between the two neighborhoods at around 6 p.m. after several grenades exploded in neighborhoods adjacent to the fighting.

“Army units deployed in the area intervened and responded to sources of fire and carried out wide-ranging raids in search of those who opened fire and organized intense patrols of Syria street,” said a statement from the Lebanese Army.

The Arab Democratic Party which dominates Jabal Mohsen accused residents of Bab al-Tabbaneh of starting the fight. Bab al-Tabbaneh figures could not be reached.

After the clashes, students gathered near Tripoli’s Serail and held a demonstration for an arms-free city.

Tension have been high between the two districts since the outbreak of the Syrian protests. Eight people were killed in June after similar armed clashes between the neighborhoods.

Increasingly tense protests continue to take place across the country as the nearly year-long uprising becomes more divisive and unrest spills across the border. The March 8 coalition, which dominates the Cabinet of Prime Minister Najib Mikati, backs the Syrian regime while rival March 14 groups have been sympathetic to the opposition.

President Michel Sleiman and Mikati called on the military to restore order.

Sleiman asked military and security forces in Tripoli “to strictly combat those undermining security and civil peace ... particularly between Jabal Mohsen and Bab al-Tabbaneh.”

Also Friday Lebanese Red Cross sources said 18 wounded Syrians had entered Lebanon over the past 48 hours.

In recent days reports of dead and wounded in Syria have poured in after Russia and China blocked a United Nations Security Council condemnation of the brutal crackdown on the Syrian uprising.

According to the latest report by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees there are 6,133 registered Syrian refugees in Lebanon. The number is a slight decrease from last week’s report but a significant rise since the UNHCR set up operations in the north of the country. The number of registered refugees only reflects a portion of Syrians in Lebanon fleeing the country’s violence. Thousands of others are living in the country with other networks of support.

Concerns from MPs over a Syrian incursion into the northern villages of Wadi Khaled to stop aid smuggling to the Syrian opposition prompted the Lebanese Army to conduct heavy patrols along the border late Thursday night and early Friday.

The state-run National News Agency said military trucks headed toward border villages late Thursday to take up new positions. Such an attack, should it take place, would be a “serious violation,” said Future bloc MP Atef Majdalani told the Kataeb-run Voice of Lebanon radio station. “It would be tantamount to an act of war.”

March 14 politicians have accused the government of undertaking actions on behalf of the Syrian regime to stop aid from moving across the border to opposition groups. The March 8 led government has refrained from condemning the violence or working with international efforts to mediate the conflict.

As the situation in Syrian and Lebanon becomes more unstable, rhetoric from politicians has ramped up. Former Prime Minister Saad Hariri called for recognizing an opposition organization, the Syrian National Council, as the representative of the Syrian people.

“The Syrian people are facing a military machine that does not care for human and moral values, and for any bonds of brotherhood and kinship between those in charge of killing and the victims, which confirms that the Syrian regime has reached the verge of collapse,” said a statement by Hariri who has been outside Lebanon since April of last year.