Pat Dollard | Young Americans

TRIPOLI, Lebanon, July 25 (Reuters) - Gunmen from rival sectarian factions exchanged machinegun and grenade fire on Friday in Lebanon’s northern city of Tripoli, killing at least three people and wounding 17, medical sources said. Residents fled from the fighting between the Sunni Muslim Bab Tibbaneh and the Alawite Jabal Mohsen districts of Tripoli, where sectarian violence linked to Lebanon’s political troubles has killed at least 16 people in the past two months.

One soldier had been seriously wounded by Friday’s clashes, a military source said, adding that more troops had deployed in the area.

The Tripoli fighting has cast a shadow over a deal that ended a bitter political conflict between Lebanon’s Sunni-led governing coalition and an opposition alliance led by Shi’ite Hezbollah, which is close to Alawite groups in Tripoli.

The rival alliances formed a national unity government on July 11 after weeks of wrangling over portfolios. But they are now at odds over the government’s policy statement, with Hezbollah’s weapons at the heart of the dispute.

Hezbollah, which is backed by Syria and Iran, used its arms to impose its terms for an end to the political conflict in May by briefly taking over Beirut and routing supporters of the anti-Damascus governing coalition.

The Alawite faith is a small offshoot of Shi’ite Islam and its adherents are mostly based in Syria which is ruled by the Alawite Assad family.

Their numbers are small in Lebanon but they gained some political influence during an era of Syrian dominance that came to an end in 2005 after international pressure forced Damascus to withdraw troops from the country.