LEBANON: Lebanese troops shell militant positions in Nahr al-Bared camp in northern Lebanon

Record ID: 345883

  • Title: LEBANON: Lebanese troops shell militant positions in Nahr al-Bared camp in northern Lebanon
  • Date: 1st June 2007
  • Summary: SMOKE RISING FROM NAHR AL-BARED CAMP (AUDIO OF GUNFIRE, BLASTS)
  • Embargoed: 16th June 2007 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Lebanon
  • Country: Lebanon
  • Topics: Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVABPFEECG1Y1A8L22GGUZYEUVP9
  • Story Text: Lebanese troops shell militant positions in Nahr al-Bared camp in northern Lebanon.

    Heavy fighting resumed on Friday (June 1) between al-Qaeda inspired militants entrenched in a Palestinian refugee camp and Lebanese troops.
    Artillery shelling and heavy machine gun fire rocked the camp in the latest clashes which started since early morning at Nahr al-Bared in north Lebanon, as Lebanese troops attacked Fatah al-Islam militants' positions.
    Television footage showed smoke billowing from inside the cramped camp's breeze block buildings.
    The Lebanese army has been battling the Fatah al-Islam militants at the Nahr al-Bared camp for almost two weeks when militants started attacking its positions there.
    The violence is Lebanon's worst since the 1975-1990 civil war, killing 83 people -- 34 soldiers, 29 militants and 20 civilians.
    On Thursday one Lebanese soldier was killed and three others were wounded.
    The Lebanese government is demanding the militants surrender, but the group says it is acting in self defence and refuses to hand over any of its fighters. Lebanon has already charged 20 Fatah al-Islam members, captured during the fighting, with terrorism. The charges carry the death penalty.
    A 1969 Arab agreement stops the army from entering Lebanon's 12 Palestinian refugee camps, home to 400,000.
    The government has given Palestinian leaders in Lebanon a chance to find a way out of the two-week stand-off, because it is worried that heightened fighting could spill over into fighting in Lebanon's 11 other refugee camps.
    So far the mediation efforts have failed in stemming the fighting.
    More than 25,000 of the camp's 40,000 Palestinians have fled from Nahr al-Bared to the nearby Beddawi camp, where humanitarian organisations have been carrying out relief work.
    Members of Lebanon's anti-Syrian cabinet have described Fatah al-Islam as a tool of Syrian intelligence, though Damascus denies any links to the group. The group's Palestinian leader, Shaker al-Abssil, says he follows al Qaeda's same ideology and many of his estimated 300 gunmen have fought in Iraq.
    Lebanese authorities say Fatah al-Islam includes Arabs from Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Tunisia, Syria and Lebanon.
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