5 dead in Lebanon clash of Assad foes, backers

Middle Eastern News Photos

A Sunni gunman fires his machine gun during clashes that erupted between pro and anti-Syrian regime gunmen, in the northern port city of Tripoli, Lebanon, Thursday, May. 23, 2013. Opponents and supporters of Syrian President Bashar Assad traded heavy machine gun fire and mortar shells in the Lebanese port city of Tripoli, leaving five people dead in what was described as some of the heaviest fighting there in years, officials said Thursday. (AP Photo)

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5 dead in Lebano... A Sunni gunman fires his machine gun during clashes that erupted between pro and anti-Syrian regime gunmen, in the northern port city of Tripoli, Lebanon, Thursday, May. 23, 2013. Opponents and supporters of Syrian President Bashar Assad traded heavy machine gun fire and mortar shells in the Lebanese port city of Tripoli, leaving five people dead in what was described as some of the heaviest fighting there in years, officials said Thursday. (AP Photo)
Syrian oppositio... This Tuesday, May 21, 2013 citizen journalism image provided by Edlib News Network, ENN, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, shows a Syrian rebel firing locally made shells made from gas cylinders against the Syrian forces, in Idlib province, northern Syria. Syria's main opposition group is urging rebels to come from around the country to reinforce Qusair, a western town under attack by Syrian troops and members of Lebanon's Hezbollah group. (AP Photo/Edlib News Network ENN)
Submerged struct... File - In this April 14, 2011 file photo, a boat is by the jetty of the Capernaum National Park in the Sea of Galilee in northern Israel. The monumental structure, made of boulders and stones with a diameter of 70 meters, was found through a sonar scan at the bottom of the Sea of Galilee in 2003. Now, archaeologists are beginning to put together grant proposals and funding requests in a bid to permit them access to the submerged stones.(AP Photo/Bernat Armangue, File)
7 Egyptian secur... This image made from video broadcast on Egyptian State Television shows members of the Egyptian security forces after their release by kidnappers, in Cairo, Egypt, Wednesday, May 22, 2013. Six Egyptian policemen and a border guard kidnapped by suspected militants in the volatile Sinai Peninsula last week were freed by their captors Wednesday after successful mediation, the country's military spokesman said. (AP Photo/Egyptian State Television) EGYPT OUT
Kerry: US, allie... U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, left, speaks during a joint news conference with his Jordanian counterpart, Nasser Judeh, right, in Amman Wednesday, May 22, 2013. Secretary of State John Kerry says the United States and its Arab and European allies will step up their support for Syria’s opposition to help them “fight for the freedom of their country” if President Bashar Assad’s regime doesn’t engage in peace talks in good faith. (AP Photo/Mohammad Hannon)
Iran candidate l... In this photo taken on Saturday, May 11, 2013, conservative former Iranian Foreign Minister, Ali Akbar Velayati, a senior advisor to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, shows his inked finger to media as he registers his candidacy for the upcoming presidential election, at the election headquarters of the interior ministry in Tehran, Iran. He was selected Tuesday, May 21, 2013 as one of eight candidates allowed to push ahead with his presidential bid. Velayati, 67, served as foreign minister during the 1980-88 war with Iraq and into the 1990s. He is a physician and runs a hospital in north Tehran. He was among the suspects named by Argentina in a 1994 bombing of a Jewish center in Buenos Aires that killed 85 people. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
Syria opposition... This citizen journalism image provided by Qusair Lens, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, shows a Syrian man checking his destroyed house that was damaged by a Syrian forces air strike in the town of Qusair, near the Lebanon border, Homs province, Syria, Tuesday, May 21, 2013. Several members of Lebanon's militant Hezbollah group died of wounds sustained while fighting for control of a strategic Syrian town near the Lebanese border, activists said Tuesday, as the battle in the area raged for its third straight day. (AP Photo/Qusair Lens)
Clashes between ... An Egyptian Army vehicle with a tank heads to the closed Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza strip, in Sheikh Zuweyid, northern Sinai, Egypt, Monday, May 20, 2013. Security officials said 17 military and more than 20 police armored vehicles were deployed in northern Sinai Monday as a response to the kidnapping by suspected militants of six policemen and a border guard there last Thursday. It was not clear if they deployed to rescue the hostages, to make a show of force to intimidate their captors, or for another reason. (AP Photo/Roger Anis, El Shorouk Newspaper) EGYPT OUT
Israel warns Syr... An Israeli soldier works on top of a tank in a position in the Israeli controlled Golan Heights, on the border with Syria, Tuesday, May 21, 2013. Israel's military chief has issued a stern warning to Syrian leader Bashar Assad after an Israeli military jeep came under fire from Syrian forces early Tuesday. Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz said on Tuesday that Israel will not allow the Golan Heights "to become a comfortable sphere for Assad to operate from." He said that if the situation deteriorates further, Assad "will have to bear the consequences." (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)
Top figures barr... In this picture taken on Saturday, May 11, 2013, former Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani waves to media as he registers his candidacy for the upcoming presidential election, while his daughter Fatemeh, right, looks on, at the election headquarters of the interior ministry in Tehran, Iran. A hardline news website says Iran's election overseers have rejected a pair of powerful and divisive figures from running in next month's presidential election. Tasnimnews.com say Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a former president who still wields enormous influence, and Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, a close confident of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, have been barred by the Guardian Council. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)