40 dead as Lebanese troops battle Islamist fighters
Pastor Dale Morgan
Monday May 21, 3:57 AM
*40 dead as Lebanese troops battle Islamist fighters*
Fierce gunbattles raged in Lebanon on Sunday between soldiers and
shadowy Islamic extremist fighters accused of links to Al-Qaeda, leaving
40 dead in the bloodiest such clashes in seven years.
Lebanese troops staged a broad daylight assault on a building in Tripoli
where militants from Fatah al-Islam were holed up after deadly shootouts
in the northern port city and and a nearby Palestinian refugee camp.
The army said 23 soldiers lost their lives in the deadliest fighting
between security forces and Islamists since 2000, while 15 gunmen were
killed, 10 of them in Tripoli.
A Lebanese civilian died after being caught in the crossfire when troops
stormed the building in a residential neighbourhood of Lebanon's second
largest city.
A Palestinian refugee was also killed by the Lebanese army's bombardment
of the Nahr al-Bared camp, a Fatah al-Islam stronghold.
Lebanon sent in heavy troop reinforcements to contain the battles
involving anti-tank rockets and cannons which erupted at dawn in Tripoli
and around Nazhr al-Bared.
"We are now in control of the situation in Tripoli," Lebanese security
chief General Ashraf Rifi said, after 12 hours of fighting.
But the sound of gunfire continued to rattle through the streets shortly
before sunset and even in the capital, patrols and roadblocks were
visibly stepped up, with armoured cars circulating on the streets.
The army said two of its soldiers were killed in renewed fighting around
the Nahr al-Bared camp in the early evening.
After an emergency meeting with security chiefs, the cabinet authorised
the army to "take all necessary measures to restore order."
"There is no decision to enter the camp," where, under longstanding
convention, security is the responsibility of Palestinian militant
groups, Information Minister Ghazi Aridi said.
"But the army has already started to act. The choices are difficult but
we will not step back," he added.
The bodies of seven soldiers, including one officer, were discovered
after darkness fell at an army post which had been occupied by the
militants during the day, an army spokesman said.
Four wounded Palestinians were evacuated from Nahr al-Bared, a Red
Crescent spokesman said, adding that there were more casualties still
inside the camp.
"The blows dealt by Fatah al-Islam against the Lebanese army are a
premeditated crime and a dangerous attempt to destabilise (Lebanon),"
charged Prime Minister Fuad Siniora, whose Western-backed government has
been paralysed for months by an acute political crisis.
The clashes drew expressions of concern at home and abroad for the
stability of Lebanon, where feuding leaders largely set aside their
differences to appeal for public support for the security services.
According to various sources, more than 30 Lebanese soldiers, 16 police,
seven civilians and about 40 refugees were also wounded in the violence.
"We warn the army against continuing its provocations against our
mujahedeen (Islamic fighters) or risk us opening fire against it and all
of Lebanon," said a statement said to have been issued by Fatah al-Islam.
The army said the fighting was triggered when the militants staged an
attack on a military post outside Nahr al-Bared, home to about 22,000
refugees.
Syria, the former power broker in Lebanon, announced it had closed two
border posts into its smaller neighbour because of the violence.
Lebanese authorities have accused Fatah al-Islam, a splinter group said
to be ideologically close to Osama bin Laden's network, of working for
the Syrian intelligence services.
Lebanese MP Mustafa Hashem renewed the accusation Sunday, charging that
Damascus was seeking to stir trouble at a time when the UN Security
Council was preparing to consider imposing an international court to try
suspects in the 2005 murder of former premier Rafiq Hariri in which it
has been implicated.
Fatah al-Islam was also accused of carrying out bus bombings in a
mountainous Christian area north of Beirut in February that left three
people dead.
But the group denied any involvement in the bombings, and any links to
Al-Qaeda. Syria has also denied any links with it.
The group accused the government of trying to pave the way for an
offensive against the Palestinian camps in Lebanon, which house more
than half of the country's nearly 400,000 refugees.
Fatah al-Islam is headed by Shaker Abssi, who is said to be linked to
the former leader of Al-Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi who was
killed in a US raid in 2006.
The clashes were the deadliest since January 2000 when 45 people were
killed in fighting between the army and Sunni militants of the Takfir
wal-Hijra (Excommunication and Flight) group in the Dinnieh area of
northern Lebanon.