I'm alright
Nobody worry 'bout me
Why you got to gimme a fight?
Can't you just let it be?
Posted on 05/23/2007 2:35:31 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
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."
Members of Fatah Islam said they were ready to fight.
"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."
"I would have been better off had Palestine died altogether" in 1948, he said.
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.
Army officials in Beirut refused to comment on the reinforcements.
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.
I'm alright
Nobody worry 'bout me
Why you got to gimme a fight?
Can't you just let it be?
I heard Greg Palkot w/ Fox say this morning that some of the terrorists (don’t know how many) tried to escape in a life raft or small boat via the Mediterranean. The Lebanese Navy blew them out of the water, hehe!
Is that George Clooney?
Gunfire erupts at Lebanon refugee camp ^
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1839122/posts
Lebanon says will hit terrorism as truce holds (Lebanon vows to crush Fatah al-Islam militant group) ^
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1839110/posts
Lend Lebanon a couple of Arc Light Missions.
Supporters of Syrian President Bashar Assad, wear T-shirts with Assad's picture as they attend a rally in his support in the main square in Damascus, Thursday, May 24, 2007. The rally is one of several that have been held across Syria since the people's 250-seat parliament unanimously nominated Assad for a new second term. Syria will go Sunday, May 27, to the polling stations in a national referendum, endorsing the re-election of the 42-year-old Assad, who is the sole candidate and whose victory is a foregone conclusion. (AP Photo Bassem Tellawi)
I think they were giving the camp 72 hours to clear out, and then any guarantees on personal safety were off.
I doubt we will lend Lebanon this or a MOAB.. How they handle the rat nest is up to them. What a mess that area of the globe is..
United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon speaks during a press conference on 03 May 2007. The United Nations said Thursday it would send a team to Lebanon early next week to check on reported arms smuggling across the border with neighboring Syria.(AFP/File/Ali al-Saadi)
Glad that they are doing this, but it makes me wonder about what deals were struck behind closed doors.
Let's pose that question to our man on the scene. Be patient; it's after midnight in Beirut so Patrick K won't respond until morning.
"All your automatic gun machines are belong to us"
Good morning all,
I am afraid redgolum is perfectly right.
Take for example the succession of news talking about ceasefire, and breaking it repeatedly. The army refused any ceasefire with Fatah Al Islam (FI) for the reason that the simple fact of agreeing for a ceasefire means recognizing a sort of moral status to these people.
Other news talk about not entering inside the perimeter of the “camp” because of a 40 years agreement. That agreement (the Cairo agreement of 1969) was officially revoked around 1985 in a vote in the Lebanese Parliament after the PLO was shipped out to Tunisia in 1982.
The official representative of the Palestinian Authorithy, after Siniora chickened to take the responsibility of pronouncing a clear and formal position to him, received a clear answer from the Army and declared satisfied even if it was a negative one.
Now news talk of interposing PLO soldiers (they should bring them from somewhere and under a new accord) between the Army and (FI), then let (FI) go outside Lebanon, guess where! to Iraq. The media listen to whispers from somewhere and it is not the Army, and it is not either a psychological alternate showering of hot and cold.
The ops region has been calm for almost 48 hours. I already told NYer that:
I am confident the Lebanese military will prevail on one condition: that its operations are not hindered by subtile political obstacles, the kind of pushing away its plannings to finish off this organization by the past. The people’s mood converge at supporting the Lebanese Army. But any move by the sunni political class in power to infiltrate and appropriate whole or part of the success so they could unwind it later on, may cause catastrophic changes.
Latest news talk of
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1839249/posts
containing ammo, UH-1 and tank spare parts and special equipment for MOUT ops like night vision goggles etc... hopefully for future ops.
If they are running they are terrorists. If they are walking, they're well-disciplined terrorists...
Young and middle aged and men walking with woman and children and old folks but not really with them.You tell me if they really are terrorists getting the cha out or not.
Please read the following article. It sheds some light on why, how and who questions.
http://www.counterpunch.org/lamb05242007.html
Firebombing Nahr el-Bared would work .
If the Lebanese get too hard on the radicals I’ll bet Syria will have some action to take. Then Israel should whup off in Syria’s ass. Of course that could be a good thing as it will detract Syria from aiding the insurgents in Iraq. I’ll bet Pelosi is crying a river.
Google it. The Jordanians got tired of the Palestinians, early on, and took care of business. They have not had anything like the problem with Palies, that Lebanon has had.
Lebanon's defense minister issued an ultimatum Wednesday to Islamic militants barricaded in this Palestinian refugee camp to surrender or face a military onslaught... Storming the Nahr el-Bared camp... 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.I have to wonder how anyone writes things that ridiculous without laughing -- if the legal army of Lebanon enters a squatter camp filled with foreign nationals who harbor anti-government thugs, terrorists, and mass murderers, the squatters may get upset. They should be getting upset at the end of a rope.
"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."Gosh, I hope they resist.
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. I would have been better off had Palestine died altogether" in 1948, he said...Can't argue with that -- other than to mention that Palestine never existed as a nation anyway.
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... 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.Of course, it took the UNSC about 30 years to condemn Syria's efforts to do the same thing.
Automatic gun machine,LOL!
The media are SO damnably stupid!
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