Sporadic fire shakes Lebanon siege camp
Tuesday, 12 June 2007
NAHR AL-BARED, Lebanon, Jun 11(AFP): Sporadic firefights continued Monday between Lebanese troops and diehard Islamist militiamen at an impoverished refugee camp where a deadly showdown is now in its fourth week.
The sound of assault rifle and machinegun fire interrupted long stretches of uneasy calm since late Sunday around the Nahr al-Bared camp where the army has been besieging Fatah al-Islam since fighting first erupted on May 20.
Monday's shooting came after a weekend of fierce gunbattles that left 17 people dead, bringing to 123 the number killed in the deadliest internal feuding since Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil war.
The death toll includes 58 soldiers and 50 members of Fatah al-Islam, a shadowy Al-Qaeda inspired Sunni Muslim gang which first emerged in Lebanon late last year.
The high weekend casualties came after the army staged an operation to storm Fatah al-Islam positions inside the camp on the shores of the Mediterranean in northern Lebanon.
The army tried to overrun positions held by the militia, advancing 50 metres (yards) inside the camp, but encountered fierce resistance, losing troops to booby-trapped bomb blasts and grenades.
By longstanding convention the army does not enter the country's 12 refugee camps, leaving security inside to Palestinian militants but Prime Minister Fuad Siniora has hinted those arrangements might have to be reviewed.
"Fatah al-Islam's entry into the Nahr al-Bared camp shows the failure of the Palestinians' autonomous security system," he told France 24 television.
During brief lulls Sunday, relief workers evacuated 250 people from the Nahr al-Bared camp where more than 3,000 inhabitants out of an original 31,000 are still trapped in precarious conditions. The rest have fled.
The sound of assault rifle and machinegun fire interrupted long stretches of uneasy calm since late Sunday around the Nahr al-Bared camp where the army has been besieging Fatah al-Islam since fighting first erupted on May 20.
Monday's shooting came after a weekend of fierce gunbattles that left 17 people dead, bringing to 123 the number killed in the deadliest internal feuding since Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil war.
The death toll includes 58 soldiers and 50 members of Fatah al-Islam, a shadowy Al-Qaeda inspired Sunni Muslim gang which first emerged in Lebanon late last year.
The high weekend casualties came after the army staged an operation to storm Fatah al-Islam positions inside the camp on the shores of the Mediterranean in northern Lebanon.
The army tried to overrun positions held by the militia, advancing 50 metres (yards) inside the camp, but encountered fierce resistance, losing troops to booby-trapped bomb blasts and grenades.
By longstanding convention the army does not enter the country's 12 refugee camps, leaving security inside to Palestinian militants but Prime Minister Fuad Siniora has hinted those arrangements might have to be reviewed.
"Fatah al-Islam's entry into the Nahr al-Bared camp shows the failure of the Palestinians' autonomous security system," he told France 24 television.
During brief lulls Sunday, relief workers evacuated 250 people from the Nahr al-Bared camp where more than 3,000 inhabitants out of an original 31,000 are still trapped in precarious conditions. The rest have fled.