BEIRUT – Two men were killed and several others were wounded Wednesday during a gunfight in the north of Lebanon close to the Syrian border, L’Orient Today’s correspondent in the area reported.
Here’s what we know:
• The shooting occured when a group of armed Alawite men assaulted the home of Hassan Abdel Halim Noun, which is close to the village of Sammaqiyeh, reported our correspondent. The gunfire killed both Noun and his brother. Others injured during the attack were transferred to a hospital in Hermel.
• Our correspondent in the area explained that the assault was part of a feud that boiled over after the death of a member of an Alawite family in the region two days earlier.
• Feud-based violence and armed conflicts are not an uncommon occurrence in Lebanon, facilitated by the lack of reliance on legal authorities to resolve disputes and the widespread presence of personal weapons. In October, a feud between two families in Wadi Jammous, in the Akkar region of North Lebanon, escalated to armed conflict and left at least six people dead.