Terrorists assassinate Lebanese soldier in Tripoli

Militants have shot dead a Lebanese soldier in the northern city of Tripoli, where spillover of ongoing conflict in Syria continues to takes more lives.

Butrous Baya, a member of Lebanon’s Internal Security Forces, was killed on Friday when gunmen opened fire on his car.

Baya was killed instantly with his vehicle plunging into the nearby Abu Ali River.

The attack came a day after masked militants on a motorcycle gunned down an officer in central Tripoli.

Two dozen people have been killed over the past week in clashes between supporters and opponents of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Tripoli, Lebanon’s second largest city.

The fighting has pitted pro-Assad residents of Jabal Mohsen neighborhood against inhabitants of neighboring Bab al-Tabbaneh who support foreign-backed militants operating in Syria.

The rival groups accuse each other of using the city as a base for transferring militants and weapons in and out of Syria.

Meanwhile, Lebanon has been suffering from terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda-linked militant groups, as well as random rocket attacks, which are viewed as a spillover of the prolonged conflict in Syria.

Late Thursday, the Lebanese military said soldiers killed a man suspected of involvement in the murder of soldiers, preparing car bombs and firing mortar shells at Lebanese villages.

More than 130,000 people have reportedly been killed in Syria’s relentless violence that has been fueled by militants backed by Western powers and their regional allies – especially Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Turkey.