38 killed in Lebanon infighting

Lebanese army battles al-Qaeda-linked militants in bloodiest internal fighting since civil war

Reuters|Published: 05.20.07 , 18:21

Lebanese troops battled al-Qaeda-linked militants based in a Palestinian refugee camp on Sunday, and 38 people were killed in Lebanon’s bloodiest internal fighting since the 1975-90 civil war.

Thirteen soldiers and 19 militants died in the clashes, which erupted before dawn at the Nahr al-Bared camp and spread into the nearby Sunni Muslim city of Tripoli in north Lebanon.

A cabinet minister said the fighting with Fatah al-Islam, which the government says is backed by Syria, seemed timed to try to derail UN moves to set up an international court to try those suspected of carrying out political killings in Lebanon.

The soldiers were killed at Nahr al-Bared just north of Tripoli, Lebanon’s second largest city, and in an attack on an army patrol in al-Qalamoun to the south, a security source said.

Civilians dead in crossfire

Security sources said 15 militants were killed in Tripoli, where the army had re-established control, and four in the camp, home to 40,000 refugees. Medical sources in the camp said six civilians, including two children, were killed and 60 wounded.

The army was blasting militant positions in the camp with tank, mortar and machinegun fire, a military source said. More than 27 soldiers were wounded overall, the source added.

Fatah al-Islam, a Sunni group, said the army had launched an unprovoked attack.

“We warn the Lebanese army of the consequences of continuing the provocative acts against our mujahideen who will open the gates of fire ... against (the army) and against the whole of Lebanon,” it said in a statement faxed to Reuters.

The authenticity of the statement could not be verified.

The army had tightened its grip around Nahr al-Bared after four Fatah al-Islam members, all Syrian nationals, were charged with planting bombs on two buses in a Christian area near Beirut in February. Three civilians were killed in those attacks.

Fatah al-Islam is known to have Lebanese, Syrians, and Palestinians in its ranks. Its leader is a Palestinian.

UN tribunal

Cabinet minister Ahmad Fatfat, speaking in Tripoli, said the violence was part of efforts to sabotage UN moves to set up the international tribunal to try suspects in the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri.

A UN inquiry has implicated Syria and Lebanese officials in the Hariri killing. Damascus denies any involvement.

Syria also denies any link to Fatah al-Islam, whose leader, Shaker al-Abssi, says the group has no organizational links to al Qaeda but agrees with its aim of fighting “infidels”.

Syria closed two of its border crossings into northern Lebanon because of the security situation there, according to an official Syrian statement. The main crossing remained open.

Fatfat told Lebanon’s pro-government Future TV: “There is someone trying to create security chaos to say to world public opinion: ‘Look, if the tribunal is established, there will be security trouble in Lebanon’.”

The United States, France, and Britain last week circulated a draft UN resolution that would unilaterally set up the court, which is at the heart of a political crisis in Lebanon.

Machinegun fire and explosions rocked the Nahr al-Bared area when the fighting broke out overnight. Residents were trapped indoors and pleaded for a ceasefire to evacuate the wounded.

The Lebanese army sent reinforcements to the outskirts of the camp, but did not enter it in line with a 1969 Arab agreement which bars it from entering Palestinian camps.

An army statement said the clashes began when Fatah al-Islam attacked army posts around the camp and in northern Tripoli.

Security forces had also been trying to arrest Fatah al-Islam members suspected of robbing a bank on Saturday, security sources said. A group of them had been detained.

Fatah al-Islam was formed last year by fighters who broke off from the Syrian-backed Fatah Uprising group.