Posted on 05/24/2007 9:53:25 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
TRIPOLI, Lebanon - Sporadic gunfire erupted Thursday inside the Nahr el-Bared refugee camp where Islamic militants are holed up after refusing an ultimatum by Lebanon's defense minister to surrender or face a military onslaught. Lebanon's leader vowed to uproot the fighters.
Insurgents from the al-Qaida-inspired Fatah Islam militant group barricaded in the Palestinian refugee camp vowed not to give up and to fight any Lebanese assault.
Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora, in an address to the nation, said that his government would stamp out Fatah Islam.
"We will work to root out and strike at terrorism, but we will embrace and protect our brothers in the camps," Saniora said in a televised speech, insisting Lebanon has no quarrel with the 400,000 Palestinian refugees who live in the country.
Saniora said Fatah Islam is "a terrorist organization that claims to be Islamic and to defend Palestine" and was "attempting to ride on the suffering and the struggle of the Palestinian people."
Meanwhile, it was not clear what sparked shooting in the camp Thursday, as a truce appeared to hold since Tuesday afternoon. Half a dozen soldiers followed by an armored car and a light vehicle headed toward a forward army position at the camp's northern entrance.
The army's first checkpoints are some 500 yards from the buildings on the edge of Nahr el-Bared. Militant positions begin farther down inside the sprawling maze of houses.
Despite the volleys of automatic rifle fire, soldiers appeared relaxed as they manned their checkpoints, some smoking cigarettes while a pickup truck of refugees — mostly women and children — came out.
"How many times do we have to be displaced," cried Palestinian refugee Nohad Abdel-Al, clad in a black robe and a black headscarf.
"Have mercy on us! Have mercy on us," she told the troops, holding an infant in her arms.
Her husband Bakri Abdel-Al said the family's two-story house had been destroyed and that they had decided to leave Thursday "because we are now hearing the fighting will resume."
"We've seen hell," he said.
Lebanon's 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 the Aley mountain resort overlooking Beirut, a 90-minute drive south of Nahr el-Bared. The blast, which injured 16 people, was the third in the Beirut area since Sunday.
Police said all but two of the injured had been released from hospital.
Fatah Islam has denied responsibility for the bombings, but many Lebanese fear more blasts if the siege continues.
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 Lebanon city of Tripoli.
"Preparations are seriously under way to end the matter," Defense Minister Elias Murr said in an interview Wednesday 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 Wednesday. 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 stated the fighters were willing to agree to a cease-fire if the military allowed them to remain in the camp.
It is unclear how many Fatah Islam fighters are in the camp, but some of the group's leaders say they number more than 500.
Around half of Nahr el-Bared's 31,000 residents have fled, traveling 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.
Though there was no fighting Wednesday, the army brought seven more armored carriers to its positions ringing the camp in the afternoon. Army officials 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.
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.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice also signaled her support for the Lebanese government, saying "we are quite certain that with the resolve that they're showing, they're going to be able to handle the situation."
Lebanon has 12 Palestinian refugee camps, all plagued by poverty and overcrowding. The Lebanese military stays out of the camps under a 1969 agreement that allows the Palestinians to run them.
They should just make Lebanon a “Gun Free Zone”, that always works.
Sincerly,
Seung-Hui Cho
Didn’t Lebanon kick out the Palestinians once?
In the 70s ..
Muslim wedding. Don’t they do that instead of throwing rice?
That's a pretty lousy kill ratio, if you ask me.
Allowing the Palestinians to run anything is a formula for disaster.
They’re probably as heavily armed as the Lebanese army, thanks to their outside funding buddies such as Syria. I read earlier that a number of the terrorists killed yesterday were Africans, btw, so they’re obviously importing fighters, too.
But a bit of good news - I saw a news headline when I was passing by a TV today that said that we are going to supply the Lebanese army with ammunition.
High Volume. Articles on Israel can also be found by clicking on the Topic or Keyword Israel. or WOT [War on Terror]
----------------------------
"We will work to root out and strike at terrorism, but we will embrace and protect our brothers in the camps," Saniora said in a televised speech, insisting Lebanon has no quarrel with the 400,000 Palestinian refugees who live in the country.
If that's the case Mr. Prime Minister, why not give them Lebanese citizenship after 50 years and allow them to resettle where the choose.
I ask again, what are these Palestinians “refugees” from?
Registered refugees, from West Bank and Gaza and their descendents. The overwhelming majority were born in the camps. The combatants, who knows, likely recent arrivals among them.
It;s on fox.
My goodness its heavy.
The poor reporter seems to be stuck right in the middle of it.
Looked pretty intense on Fox. I couldn’t believe it when i turned the news on. I expected Free Republic to be blowing on this, is there another thread I’m missing?
Can’t find anything. Maybe freepers don’t like cavuto?
No doubt they don’t like Geraldo. lol.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.