LEBANON: Lebanon army battles militants in north, 48 killed

Record ID: 376656

  • Title: LEBANON: Lebanon army battles militants in north, 48 killed
  • Date: 21st May 2007
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) PARLIAMENT MAJORITY LEADER SAAD HARIRI, MARCH 14 COALITION, SPEAKING TO MEDIA, SAYING: "We are the doors to decisive elections, what Tripoli and the northern region are witnessing is a message to the Lebanese people that their security is in jeopardy. Islam is innocent of those criminals and terrorists and their actions."
  • Embargoed: 5th June 2007 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Lebanon
  • Country: Lebanon
  • Topics: Defence / Military
  • Reuters ID: LVA5ZQ4S5X26GRF8AZVZIZ1D97MP
  • Story Text: Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora calls a meeting in Beirut to discuss clashes that killed dozens in the country's north. Lebanese troops battled Islamist militants based in a Palestinian refugee camp on Sunday (May 20) and 48 people were killed in Lebanon's bloodiest internal fighting since the 1975-90 civil war.
    Twenty-three soldiers and 19 militants died in the clashes, which erupted before dawn at Nahr al-Bared camp and the nearby Sunni Muslim city of Tripoli, in north Lebanon.
    Security sources said 15 militants were killed when troops stormed buildings in Tripoli and four were killed in the camp, home to 40,000 refugees. Medical sources in the camp said six civilians, including two children, were killed and 60 wounded.
    The army blasted militant positions in the camp with tank, mortar and machinegun fire, a military source said. More than 20 soldiers were wounded overall, the source added.
    Fatah al-Islam, a Sunni group, said in a statement faxed to Reuters that the army had launched an unprovoked attack.
    The authenticity of the statement could not be verified.
    Fatah al-Islam is known to have Lebanese, Syrians and Palestinians in its ranks. Its leader is a Palestinian.
    The army said the clashes began when Fatah al-Islam attacked army posts around the camp and in northern Tripoli.
    Lebanon's anti-Syrian March 14 faction, which dominates the government, sent reinforcements to the outskirts of Nahr al-Bared, but did not push inside, in line with a 1969 Arab agreement bars Lebanese security forces from Palestinian camps.
    Television footage of a Tripoli building stormed by the army showed corpses, some charred, on a floor strewn with rubble.
    In Beirut, Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora met with majority leader MP Saad Hariri who said later the clashes were a message to the Lebanese that they are not safe as they prepare to elect a new president.
    "We are the doors to decisive elections, what Tripoli and the northern region are witnessing is a message to the Lebanese people that their security is in jeopardy. Islam is innocent of those criminals and terrorists and their actions," said Hariri.
    Siniora also convened a top security meeting that included the government officials and army generals to discuss the day's deadly events.
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