Lebanese troops bombard militants in refugee camp

By Staff
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Google Oneindia News

Nahr al-Bared (Lebanon), July 25: Lebanese troops bombarded a Palestinian refugee camp with tank and artillery shells today, trying to force al Qaeda-inspired militants ensnared in the camp to surrender.

Witnesses said clashes were concentrated on the last pockets occupied by Fatah al-Islam militants who have stubbornly held on to the Nahr al-Bared camp in more than two months of fighting, Lebanon's worst internal violence since the 1975-1990 civil war.

They said the militants fired two Katyusha rockets into areas outside the camp.

The army has slowly pushed deeper into the destroyed camp to trap the militants and force them to lay down their arms. But the fighting has been costly for the Lebanese army which has lost 120 soldiers since the conflict began on May 20.

More than 81 militants and 41 civilians have also been killed.

The camp was home to 40,000 refugees before the fighting began but is now largely deserted with only about 1,000 civilians left, including the families of Fatah al-Islam's mainly foreign Arab fighters, according to Palestinian sources.

The internal conflict threatens stability in Lebanon, already crippled by a prolonged political crisis and shaken by bombings that have killed six UN peacekeepers and two anti-Syrian lawmakers in the past eight months.


Reuters>

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