Deadly fighting grips second Lebanon camp
LEBANON: Deadly firefights raged near a Palestinian refugee camp in
south Lebanon early on Monday, opening a potentially dangerous new front
for the army as it battles to crush Islamist militants in the north of
the country.
Two soldiers and two Islamist extremists were killed in the overnight
clashes near Ein al-Helweh, the largest of Lebanon's 12 refugee camps in
the southern Mediterranean city of Sidon, a military spokesman said.
The fighting erupted as Lebanese troops continued to lay siege to
another band of Al-Qaeda inspired militiamen in the Nahr al-Bared camp
in the north of the country in a 16-day standoff that has left more than
100 people dead.
In a bid to contain the latest unrest, the army sent in more armoured
vehicles around Ein al-Helweh and boosted security in Sidon where
schools were closed, many shops remained shut and traffic was slow.
The fighting pitted troops against gunmen from Jund al-Sham (Soldiers
of Damascus), a little known militant group mainly made up of Islamist
Lebanese extremists, some of them wanted. Palestinian factions, which
have sole control over security in Ain al-Helweh as in all other camps
across the country, were in contact with the Lebanese authorities to try
to end the latest confrontations, local officials told AFP.
The latest flareup has added to concerns that the violence could
spread to more of Lebanon's 12 refugee camps, which hold more than half
of the 400,000 Palestinians in the country, mostly in conditions of
abject poverty.
A total of 107 people have now been killed in 16 days of bloodshed,
the deadliest internal feuding since the 1975-1990 civil war that has
added to tensions in a country already in the grip of an acute political
crisis.
In the north, Lebanese troops to tighten the noose around militants
holed up in the Nahr al-Bared camp, where both sides vowing to fight to
the end. Backed by tanks, the military pounded the squalid camp
intermittently throughout Sunday where Fatah al-Islam militiamen are
still holding out in the face of superior firepower.
Beirut, Monday, AFP |
