Islamist killed in south Lebanon; battles in north

Nahr- Al-Bared, Lebanon, July 15: Lebanese troops fought close-quarter battles with al Qaeda-inspired militants at a Palestinian refugee camp in north Lebanon today while an Islamist activist was gunned down in the south.

Security sources said unknown gunmen shot dead Dharrar Rifai at Ain al-Hilweh refugee camp in south Lebanon. Rifai was a member of the now defunct Jund al-Sham group.

Jund al-Sham was dissolved last month after clashes with the Lebanese army. Two groups dominate Ain al-Hilweh, Lebanon's largest Palestinian refugee camp - Fatah and al Qaeda-linked Usbat al-Ansar.

In north Lebanon, soldiers exchanged automatic rifle fire and grenades with militants at building and alleyways leading to the centre of Nahr al-Bared camp while army artillery pounded other areas. Fatah al-Islam militants hit back, firing a dozen Katyusha rockets at surrounding Lebanese villages.

The fighting, which entered its ninth week today, has killed at least 219 people, including 98 soldiers, making it the worst internal violence since Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil war.

Security sources said troops pulled out alive two commandos who had been buried under the rubble of a booby-trapped building that blew up yesterday.

The military has increased its bombardment of the besieged camp since Thursday, anxious not to get sucked into a war of attrition with the well-trained and well-armed militants.

But the militants have responded fiercely, killing 11 soldiers and wounding 53.

A 1969 Arab agreement banned Lebanese security forces from entering Palestinian camps. The agreement was annulled by the Lebanese parliament in the mid-1980s but the accord effectively stayed in place.

The violence has further undermined stability in Lebanon, where a paralysing 8-month political crisis has been compounded by bombings in and around Beirut, the assassination of an anti-Syrian legislator and a fatal attack on UN peacekeepers.

Lebanese politicians are meeting in France in an effort to find ways to resume dialogue after months of political stalemate.

Reuters

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