| Fatah al-Islam fires up in Lebanon |
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| World Affairs Talk | |
| Wednesday, 06 June 2007 | |
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The charges against the 19 Lebanese and one Syrian, all in custody, carried the death penalty and were linked to fighting around the Nahr al-Bared camp that has killed 79 people of whom 34 were soldiers, 27 militants and 18 were civilians. The current unrest is centered around the Nahr al-Bared camp on the shores of the Mediterranean in northern Lebanon where soldiers have being laying seige to the Al-Qaeda inspired Sunni Muslim extremist group Fatah al-Islam. The Lebanese authorities blame the group for starting the conflict by attacking Army positions near the northern city of Tripoli on May 20, 2007. In all, 108 people have been killed in 17 days of bloodshed since than, the deadliest internal feuding since the 1975-1990 civil wars that has added to tensions in a country already in the grip of an acute political crisis. Members of Lebanon's anti-Syrian cabinet described Fatah al-Islam as a tool of Syrian intelligence, although Damascus denies any links to the group. Lebanese authorities say Fatah al-Islam includes Arabs from Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Tunisia, Syria and Lebanon. The Lebanese government has demanded the militants to surrender. Fatah al-Islam says, it has been acting in self defence and rejected the demand to hand over any of its fighters. The prospect of a decisive military solution to the stand-off has been played down by the government in recent days because it could trigger violence at other refugee camps, even though Fatah al-Islam has little support among Palestinians. In recent development, on 4th May, Islamic militants from a group called Jund al-Sham, who support the extremist Fatah Islam fighters in the northern camp, fired rocket-propelled grenades at the Lebanese army on the edge of Ein el-Hilweh, prompting the Army to return fire. More than 25,000 of the camp's 40,000 Palestinians have already fled to avoid the fighting. Most of the displaced refugees have flooded the nearby Beddawi camp, where humanitarian organisations have been carrying out relief work. More food supplies, medicine and water were sent to Nahr al-Bared, whose remaining inhabitants have no electricity or running water. The Army is playing from a back sit as the ‘1969 Arab agreement’ stops any of its soldiers from entering 12 Palestinian refugee camps, home to 400,000 people. The Lebanese government gave Palestinian leaders in Lebanon a chance to find a way out of the stand-off, as it is concerned that the refugees will see more Army action at the camp as an attack on their community. Share & Bookmark             |
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| Last Updated ( Friday, 08 June 2007 ) |
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