Lebanon issues ultimatum to militants (Surrender or face a military onslaught)

NAHR EL-BARED REFUGEE CAMP, Lebanon - Lebanon's defense minister issued an ultimatum Wednesday to Islamic militants barricaded in this Palestinian refugee camp to surrender or face a military onslaught.

Fighters from the al-Qaida-inspired Fatah Islam militant group vowed not to give up and to fight any Lebanese assault.

Storming the Nahr el-Bared camp — a densely built-up town of narrow streets on the Mediterranean coast — could mean rough urban fighting for Lebanese troops and further death and destruction for the thousands of civilians who remain inside.

It could also have grave repercussions elsewhere across troubled Lebanon, sparking unrest among the country's estimated 400,000 Palestinian refugees. Already some of the other refugee camps in Lebanon, which are rife with armed groups, are seething with anger over the fighting.

But the military appeared determined to uproot Fatah Islam after three days of heavy bombardment of the camp, sparked by an attack by the militants on Lebanese troops Sunday following a raid on its fighters in the nearby northern city of Tripoli.

"Preparations are seriously under way to end the matter," Defense Minister Elias Murr said in an interview with Al-Arabiya television. "The army will not negotiate with a group of terrorists and criminals. Their fate is arrest, and if they resist the army, death."

"We are not going to let those pigs defeat us," said one of a half-dozen fighters standing outside the group's office inside the camp. The fighter, who identified himself with the pseudonym Abu Jaafar, wore a belt hung with grenades.

Another militant who said he was a deputy leader of the group said the fighters were willing to agree to a cease-fire if the military allowed them to remain in the camp.

But the militant, who gave his pseudonym as Abu Hureira, warned the troops would "face a massacre" if they attempt to enter Nahr el-Bared. It is unclear how many Fatah Islam fighters are in the camp, but Abu Hureira said they number more than 500.

Around half of Nahr el-Bared's 31,000 residents have fled since a halt in the fighting Tuesday night, some clutching babies and plastic bags full of clothes. They traveled on foot and in cars past burned-out shops on streets strewn with broken glass, garbage and dead rats.

But thousands remain behind, either too ill to travel or unwilling to abandon their homes, and are now in danger of being caught in the crossfire.

Ahmed Kanaan, 92, was staying in the camp with his 37-year-old daughter. "We are treated like dogs," said the old man, who fled his home in what is now the Israeli city of Nazareth in 1948 after the first Arab-Israeli war. "They step on us and continue walking."

Occasional gunshots broke the quiet at the camp Tuesday night, witnesses said, but there was no fighting during the day Wednesday. In the afternoon, the army brought seven more armored carriers to its positions ringing the camp, although the troops did not move beyond the front line.

Murr said 30 Lebanese soldiers were killed in the three days of fighting, along with as many as 60 militants, including fighters from Lebanon, Jordan, Syria and Saudi Arabia. But a top Fatah Islam leader said only 10 of his men were killed.

U.N. relief officials said the bodies of at least 20 civilians were retrieved from inside the camp during the lull in fighting.

At U.N. headquarters in New York, the Security Council condemned the attacks by Fatah Islam "in the strongest possible terms," saying they constitute an attempt to undermine the country's stability, security and sovereignty.

A press statement from the council, which was read by the current president, U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, appealed to all Lebanese "to maintain national unity" in the face of the violence and reaffirmed its support for Lebanon's democratically elected government.

The government appeared to be preparing in case the showdown sparks violence elsewhere in the country. In a sign of the danger, a bomb exploded Wednesday night in a mountain resort overlooking Beirut, a 90-minute drive south of Nahr el-Bared. The blast, which injured five people, was the third in the Beirut area since Sunday.

Fatah Islam denied responsibility for the first two bombings, which killed a woman and injured a dozen people. But many Lebanese fear more blasts if the siege continues.

Also Wednesday, Lebanese troops killed an Islamic militant as he prepared to throw a grenade at a unit of security forces raiding an apartment in Tripoli, police said. Lebanon's state-run National News Agency said two passers-by were wounded in the exchange.

Lebanon has 12 Palestinian refugee camps, which are all plagued by poverty and overcrowding. The camps are home to many armed factions, as well as Islamic militant groups which have sent fighters to Iraq to join the fight against U.S.-led coalition troops.

The Lebanese military stays out of the camps under a 1969 agreement that allows the Palestinians to run them.

Major Palestinian factions — including the mainstream Fatah and militant Hamas and Islamic Jihad groups — have distanced themselves from the militants in Nahr el-Bared. Unlike them, Fatah Islam adheres to al-Qaida ideology and appears to have a large number of non-Palestinian fighters.

But the Palestinian factions appeared divided over whether to send their fighters to help the Lebanese military against Fatah Islam.

Sultan Abuleinein, the Fatah chief in Lebanon, hinted his group might intervene, calling for the liberation of Nahr el-Bared from "the plague" of the militants in an interview with al-Arabiya television.

But Abbas Zaki, a PLO representative in Lebanon, denied that the major Palestinian factions supported a Lebanese storming of the camp or that they were willing to join. "Beware of being deceived that there is a decision by Fatah to fight," he told Al-Jazeera television.

A group claiming to be made up of Palestinians from Lebanon's largest refugee camp — Ein el-Hilweh — has posted a statement on an Islamic militant Web site warning that it would form "jihadi groups" — holy warriors — to fight alongside Fatah Islam.

Scheherezade Faramarzi reported from Nahr el-Bared, Sam F. Ghattas reported from Beirut. Associated Press writers Nasser Nasser and Bassem Mroue in Beirut and Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations also contributed to this report.

Lebanese Army resumes battle against Fatah al-Islam

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=2&article_id=82490

BEIRUT: Renewed fighting broke out between the Lebanese Army and Islamic militants at the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp late Wednesday, witnesses said, ending a day-long cease-fire during which thousands of civilians fled the camp. The Fatah al-Islam militant group had vowed earlier in the day to carry on the fight, while Lebanese Defense Minister Elias Murr issued an ultimatum Wednesday afternoon telling the militants to surrender or face “military action.”

“The army will not negotiate with a group of terrorists and criminals,” Murr said in an interview with Al-Arabiyya television channel. “Their fate is arrest, and if they resist the army, death. There are two choices: The first one, which we prefer, is that they surrender ... the other, which we don’t like ... is military action.”

Three days of fierce fighting between Fatah al-Islam militants and the Lebanese Army have left 32 soldiers and dozens of civilians dead. Conflicting reports put the number of militants dead at between 22 and 60, making the clashes north of Tripoli the deadliest internal conflict the country has seen since the 1975-90 Civil War.

Army sources said the body of Abu Midian, the second-in-command of Fatah al-Islam, was recovered Wednesday night. The body was picked up by Lebanese Civil Defense near the Abdeh army checkpoint at the north end of the camp.

The Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation reported Wednesday that camp notables and religious figures had met with Shaker Absi, the Palestinian leader of Fatah al-Islam, to extend an offer to end the fighting. The detail of the offer were unknown, as was Absi’s response.

A Central News Agency (CNA) report Wednesday said Fatah al-Islam’s headquarters inside the camp had been completely destroyed and that Absi was wounded in the shoulder.

The report could not be independently confirmed.

A militant going by the name Abu Hureira who identified himself as Fatah al-Islam’s deputy leader told The Associated Press inside the camp Wednesday that “if [soldiers] advance toward the camp, we will open fire.”

“They will not enter except over our dead bodies,” he was quoted as saying.

Fatah al-Islam militants temporarily took over a mosque in the center of the camp at around 3 p.m. Wednesday, confiscating medicine left by aid workers.

A judiciary source said late Wednesday that the army had taken 10 Fatah al-Islam militants into custody and that they were being questioned.

Security forces collected the bodies of 15 militants in North Lebanon Wednesday, the source said on condition of anonymity. The deceased were carrying fake identity documents indicating Lebanese, Palestinian, Yemeni and Bangladeshi nationalities, the source said.

An army source told The Daily Star Wednesday that soldiers had not entered the camp.

Soldiers recovered the bodies of militants from areas bordering the camp, not from inside, he said.

The CNA reported on Wednesday that 17 bodies with fake identity papers had been recovered from inside the camp.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb

Two bodies of militants taken from around Nahr al-Bared had been identified, the judiciary source said.

Fatah al-Islam militants were seen patrolling the Nahr al-Bared camp as thousands of residents continued to flee.

The source confirmed media reports that an attempt by militants to flee the camp by boat last night had been thwarted.

“Two small boats were spotted, and both were hit and sunk,” he said. “There were no survivors as they were too far out at sea.”

The army source denied any coordination with the main Fatah faction to uproot Fatah al-Islam from Nahr al-Bared.

“This is an internal matter they have to resolve themselves,” he said, adding the army did not need any assistance.

The commander of Fatah in Lebanon, Brigadier Sultan Abu al-Aynayn, also denied Wednesday any coordination, saying an agreement had to be reached among all Palestinian factions and the Lebanese authorities over the best way to uproot Fatah al-Islam from the camp.

He described the group as a “time bomb.”

In a statement issued Wednesday, the army said attacks against army positions around the Nahr al-Bared camp Sunday were an attempt to destabilize the country and assail the standing of the government and its institutions.

“The army’s firm and rapid response ... has thwarted the plans of the terrorists,” the statement said.

The army would follow through on “the guarantee to preserve the lives of our Palestinian brothers both inside and outside the camps,” it added.

Abu Imad Rifai, the Lebanon representative of the Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad, warned the army on Wednesday against adopting a military solution in haste.

“There is a conviction on the part of many [Palestinians] that a military solution cannot lead to results or end the battle once and for all. There should be another mechanism [for a solution],” Rifai said in an interview with Hizbullah’s Al-Manar television. - With agencies

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