LEBANON: Two relief workers dead as fighting continues at Palestinian camp in Lebanon

Record ID: 375488

  • Title: LEBANON: Two relief workers dead as fighting continues at Palestinian camp in Lebanon
  • Date: 12th June 2007
  • Summary: (BN11) NAHR AL-BARED CAMP, LEBANON (JUNE 11, 2007) )(REUTERS) VARIOUS OF SMOKE RISING ABOVE HILL IN IN NAHR AL-BARED CAMP, SOUND OF EXPLOSIONS
  • Embargoed: 27th June 2007 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Lebanon
  • Country: Lebanon
  • Reuters ID: LVA9NRM4QA8JPL4ZAOTNQ9MV1Q4L
  • Story Text: A Palestian mediator is caught in the crossfire that cost the life of two relief workers as al Qaeda-inspired militants and Lebanese troops continue fighting at a Palestinian refugee camp. Two relief workers were killed and a Palestinian mediator was wounded in fierce fighting on Monday (June 11) between Lebanese troops and al Qaeda-inspired militants at a Palestinian refugee camp.
    Security sources said the two Lebanese Red Cross workers were killed and a third was wounded when they were hit by a shell during fighting between the army and Fatah al-Islam militants at Nahr al-Bared camp in northern Lebanon.
    The two slain workers had been at the northern entrance of the camp, the sources said.
    In a separate incident, a Palestinian cleric, Sheikh Mohammad al-Hajj, was shot in the thigh by a sniper after he entered the camp to hold talks with the militants on ways to end the 23-day-old conflict.
    Waleed Abu Hair, whose Palestine Clerics Association, is mediating between the government and the leader of Fatah al-Islam Shaker al-Abssi, did not know who had shot Hajj.
    "As part of continuing our (mediation) efforts, Sheikh Mohamed al-Hajj was going into the camp to meet with someone you all know when he was hit," Waleed Abu Hair said.
    A cloud of smoke hung overhead as scores of heavy artillery rounds crashed into the camp, while tank and heavy machinegun fire strafed suspected militant hideouts.
    The militants hit back with sporadic firing of mortar bombs and rocket-propelled grenades.
    At least 132 people have been killed, including 57 soldiers, in three weeks of fighting, the worst internal clashes since Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil war. Eleven soldiers died and more than 100 were wounded in battles at the weekend alone.
    The fighting has further undermined stability in Lebanon, already paralysed by a seven-month-old political crisis.
    Deadly clashes erupted last week in the south at the largest Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon, and five bombs have targeted civilian areas in and near Beirut since May 20.
    Lebanese and Palestinian Islamist politicians and clerics have so far failed to broker an end to the conflict.
    Most of Nahr al-Bared's estimated 40,000 residents have fled to other nearby refugee camps. About 80 more left on Monday.
    Some 400,000 Palestinian refugees live in Lebanon, around half in 12 camps.
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