Lebanese soldiers battle suspected ISIL backers as fighting worsens

The Lebanese army on Sunday deployed tanks and commando forces to the northern city of Tripoli, where fighting with suspected ISIL- and Al-Qaeda-inspired fighters has intensified and spread to nearby areas.

Lebanon is bitterly divided over the continuing civil war in neighboring Syria, with Sunnis supporting the Syrian rebels and Shias siding with President Bashar Assad's government. The Lebanon-based Shia armed group Hezbollah has sent fighters to support Assad's troops. Sunni fighters in Lebanon have responded with attacks on Shias as well as security forces, who they believe are secretly dominated by Hezbollah.

The fighting, which started on Friday, was particularly heavy around the town's Old Souq area. Afterward, Lebanese soldiers began searching houses for  "ISIL suspects," or fighters loyal to Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant.

Four soldiers died in Sunday's clashes, bringing the total killed to 10 since militants began fighting the army Friday following an army raid on a militant cell in northern Lebanon. Four of the dead were civilians, and it remains unknown how many ISIL-linked fighters were killed.

The Lebanese Red Cross and the nation’s military have helped to evacuate dozens of families from the neighborhood of Bab el-Tabbaneh, a focal point of the fighting.

By sunset, Justice Minister Ashraf Rifi called on the military in Tripoli to open a safe passage for ambulances to enter some of the conflict zones and evacuate the wounded and civilians. Several Tripoli hospitals urged citizens through local TV stations to donate blood of all types.

On Wednesday, troops killed three armed fighters and detained a local leader in a raid in the northern Dinniyeh region, setting off the spark that led to the Tripoli fighting.

A battle between Lebanese troops and armed groups in northern Lebanon was widely expected after ISIL members and Al-Qaeda's branch in Syria, the Nusra Front, launched several attacks over the past weeks in areas on the Lebanese border with Syria.

Fighters inspired by the Nusra Front and ISIL have killed and wounded several soldiers in a string of attacks in recent months in Tripoli and nearby areas.

Lebanese army commander Gen. Jean Kahwaji said in comments published this month that fighters from Syria want to ignite civil war and create a passage to Lebanon's coastline by linking the Syrian Qalamoun mountains with the Lebanese border town of Arsal and the northern Lebanese town of Akkar, an impoverished Sunni area.

The Lebanese army said in a statement that troops attacked a school that gunmen were using in the nearby town of Bhannine. The army said that several armed fighters were wounded while others fled, and that troops found two cars rigged with explosives, as well as well as weapons and ammunition.

Al Jazeera and wire services