2 killed in west Beirut shooting

Two people were killed when Lebanese soldiers stormed an apartment in west Beirut on Thursday,  where a gunman had exchanged fire with security forces, a security source at the scene said. The source added that the gunman, a Syrian national, was killed when the soldiers broke into the apartment at around 6am local time (3am GMT), following several hours of shooting. They found the body of another man in the apartment, along with rifles and grenades, and two men who were arrested. Six soldiers were wounded during the operation, the source said. It was not immediately clear whether the incident, in the west Beirut district of Caracas, was linked to recent sectarian violence in the Lebanese capital which has been fuelled by the conflict in neighbouring Syria. At least two people were killed in Beirut on Monday in clashes between Sunni Muslim gunmen, and nine people were killed in the northern city of Tripoli in clashes earlier this month.