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The clashes were the latest to hit the Lebanese port of Tripoli.Repeated outbreaks of violence in the city, the country s secondlargest, are seen as a spillover from Syria s conflict and hasraised fears of an escalation in sectarian tensions in Lebanon. The fighting in Tripoli started shortly before midnight Friday andintensified Saturday, the officials said on condition of anonymityin line with regulations. Lebanon and Syria share a complex web of political and sectarianties and rivalries, which are easily enflamed. Clashes in Tripolilast month killed at least eight people. The conflict pits Sunni Muslims who support Syrian rebels trying tooust President Bashar al-Assad against members of the Alawite sect,an offshoot of Shiite Islam of which Assad is a member. Smoke was seen billowing from several apartments near the city sSyria street, the split between the mainly Sunni Bab Tabbanehneighbourhood and the adjacent, Alawite-majority Jabal Mohsen, on ahill overlooking its rival. The area around Syria street was mostlyempty and gunmen were seen roaming the streets. We are being targeted because we support the Syrian people, aSunni gunman told Associated Press Television. We are with you(Syrian people) and will not abandon you. In Syria, activists said government troops fired shells at Houla, acluster of farming villages in the central province of Homs wherethe UN says at least 108 people including 49 children under theage of ten were killed on May 25. The opposition and the government have exchanged accusations overthe massacre with each side blaming the other. Syria has come under deep international isolation since its forceslaunched a ferocious crackdown on dissent nearly 15 months ago, butthe Houla massacre has brought a new urgency in calls to end thecrisis. In Qatar, the head of Syria s largest exile opposition group saidSaturday he would welcome Arab military action aimed at endingattacks by Mr. al-Assad s regime against Syrian rebel forces andcivilians. Burhan Ghalioun, the leader of the Syrian National Council, madethe comments before a meeting of Arab League foreign ministers. Theenvoys are to discuss the bloodshed in Syria, including the Houlamassacre. Gulf nations such as Saudi Arabia and Qatar have pledged funds toaid Syria s rebels, but there is no direct evidence that the moneyis reaching anti-Assad forces or that the rebels are becomingbetter armed. The Arab League, however, does not appear ready todeploy its own troops. Kofi Annan, the international envoy forSyria, is also in Doha. As a way to curb the violence in Syria, Arab League chief NabilElaraby suggested that the U.N. s nearly 300-strong observermission be changed into a peacekeeping role. What is needed today is not only observing and investigating butsupervising that the violence stops, Mr. Elaraby told themeeting. One of the alternatives could be amending theauthorization regarding the observers so that they become apeacekeeping force. The deployment of unarmed U.N. observers is part of AMr. nnan ssix-point peace plan, which includes a ceasefire that is to lead totalks between the regime and its opponents. The ceasefire, however,has never really taken hold, although world leaders continue to pintheir hopes on it because there is little appetite in the West fora Libya-style intervention. Mr. Annan warned Arab officials that the spectre of all-out civilwar, with a worrying sectarian dimension, grows by the day, inSyria, and added that the crisis is spilling over to neighbouringcountries, an apparent reference to Lebanon. The six-point plan is not being implemented, as it must be, Mr.Annan said. The situation is complex, and it takes everyoneinvolved in the crisis to act responsibly if the violence is tostop. But the first responsibility lies with the Syrian Government,and with President Assad. He called on Mr. al-Assad to implement the plan and make bold andvisible steps immediately. On Friday night, state TV aired interviews with two witnesses fromHoula who said the victims of the massacres were members offamilies that support the government and did not take part inanti-Assad protests. The witnesses names and faces were not madepublic for their own safety, according to the station. Those statements contradicted accounts of witnesses who blamed shabiha or the shadowy gunmen who operate on behalf of Mr.al-Assad s regime. The UN also said it had strong suspicions thosepro-regime gunmen were responsible for much of the bloodshed inHoula. In Brussels, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay saidSaturday there should be no amnesty for crimes committed in Syria,even if potential prosecution might motivate members of the regimeto cling to power at all costs. She said international leaders may be drawn to politicallyexpedient solutions which may involve amnesty or undertakings notto prosecute, but she insisted there cannot be amnesty for veryserious crimes. Ms. Pillay spoke a day after the Human Rights Council votedoverwhelmingly to condemn Syria over the slaughter in Houla. Since the massacre occurred, activists have reported thatgovernment troops have shelled the area almost daily. They say manyresidents have the area for fear of a new massacre. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said theshelling concentrated on the village of Tal Dahab in Houla. The Observatory and the Local Coordination Committees also reportedshelling and clashes between troops and rebels in the central cityof Homs, the southern province of Daraa and some suburbs of thecapital Damascus. Activists say as many as 13,000 people have died in Assad scrackdown against the anti-government uprising, which began inMarch 2011 amid the Arab Spring. One year after the revolt began,the UN put the toll at 9,000, but many hundreds more have diedsince. 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