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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Lebanon army battles terrs at Paleo camp
2007-05-20
TRIPOLI, Lebanon - Lebanese troops battled militants linked to Al Qaeda at a Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon on Sunday, security sources and witnesses said. The sources said there were casualties on both sides in the fighting that started before dawn at the entrance of Nahr Al Bared camp near the northern port city of Tripoli. Witnesses said the rattle of assault rifles and machine guns could be heard, and thuds from explosions rocked the area.
The Israelis have had their enemies doing red-on-red in Gaza and have now extended this to Lebanon. Fiendishly clever.
A military source said the clashes began after an army post on the outskirts of the camp came under fire from Fatah Al Islam militants. The Lebanese army cannot enter Palestinian refugee camps in line with a 38-year-old agreement but it had tightened its grip around the camp since authorities charged members of the group with carrying out a twin bus bombings in a Christian area near Beirut that killed three civilians in February.

Peoples Front of Judaea Fatah Al Islam was formed last year by fighters who broke off from the pro-Syrian Judaean Peoples Front Fatah Uprising group. Lebanese officials say the group is merely a front for Syrian intelligence in Lebanon, something both the group and Syria deny. Fatah Al Islam statements have appeared on Islamist Web sites known to publish Al Qaeda statements.
Posted by:Steve White

#15  More details on the fighting
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418   2007-05-20 22:51  

#14  PS: Does anyone else get a feeling that the Palestinians leave a trail of mayhem and death wherever they go?
Posted by: Zenster   2007-05-20 22:24  

#13  Most Paleos in Lebanon are refugees from the Paleo attempted takeover of Jordan in 1970.

Well, alrighty then. Let's definitely give them the right of return!
Posted by: Zenster   2007-05-20 22:21  

#12  Most Paleos in Lebanon are refugees from the Paleo attempted takeover of Jordan in 1970.
Posted by: gromgoru   2007-05-20 22:02  

#11  I thought all Pelosis were grating.....
Posted by: Frank G   2007-05-20 18:53  

#10  Hey! Lebs, Paleos--I've got a GREAT idea! Let's you two fight it out to the death and I'll stand here and impartially cheer for whichever side seems to be losing at the moment. Go RED! Go RED! Go RED! Go RED!
Posted by: Graiting Pelosi5237   2007-05-20 18:52  

#9   Palestinians who took refuge from fighting in Israel over the past decades.

LOL. Nice ritin. Damn near sixty years of living off the collective fat. Gimme-gimme Annual income from ass sitting 10 times that of a southron Sudan farmer. (ded).
Posted by: Shipman   2007-05-20 18:40  

#8  Why haven't the Lebonnese just sent all these people back to Gaza or whereever?

Lots of reasons, sam3rd. One is that as long as there are palestinian "refugee" camps, the issue of "right of return" is still alive and well - one way to crush Israel. Another is that when these camps were first created, they had populations in the 50K range. Now there are between a quarter and a half-million in each one (about 4.5 million total). Very, very few are original "refugees". Actually, "refugees" is the wrong name - the mufti of Jerusalem urged all muslims to leave the state of Israel, so "the arab armies could crush the upstart state with impunity". None of the countries where these "refugee camps" exist will allow the paleo arabs to enter the general population, although almost all are related. The UN High Commission on Refugees has made a grand living over the "rights" of these refugees, and doesn't want the gravy train stopped. The various paleo "liberation" regimes use the refugee camps as recruiting grounds, and don't want to give up a lucrative deal. All in all, it's the typical arab muzzie mess, and won't go away without excessive force.
Posted by: Old Patriot   2007-05-20 15:56  

#7  How delightful. Deprived of their usual steady diet of Jewish blood, the Palestinians have begun to feast upon themselves and any other hosts stupid enough to shelter them. Let us all hope that the outside world finally purchases a clue as to what sort of real-life agenda and enduring legacy these Islamic cretins bring to the global community.

Sadly, I doubt that most of the non-Arab Palestinian enablers will prove unable to abandon their deep-seated anti-Semitism long enough to realize what a blight upon our world these terrorist psychopaths are. The Arab community must be punished for breeding up these misfits with their material support and propaganda. Gaza and the West Bank must be flushed out into surrounding Arab nations so that their populations can savor the bitter dregs of humanity they have succored. They deserve nothing less.
Posted by: Zenster   2007-05-20 15:40  

#6  I think a fine salad is in order.
Posted by: Shipman   2007-05-20 15:19  

#5  update:
Lebanese tanks pounded the headquarters of a group with suspected links to al-Qaeda in a Palestinian refugee camp near Tripoli Sunday after the northern city's worst clashes in two decades killed 22 soldiers and 17 militants.
The clashes between troops surrounding the Nahr el-Bared camp and Fatah Islam fighters began early in the morning shortly after police raided a militant-occupied apartment on a major thoroughfare in Tripoli and a gunbattle erupted, witnesses said.

Hundreds of Lebanese applauded at the army as its tanks shelled the camp – a sign of the long-standing tensions between some Lebanese and the tens of thousands of Palestinians who took refuge from fighting in Israel over the past decades.
“We strongly back the Lebanese army troops and what they are doing,” said Abed Attar, a resident of Tripoli who stood watching the tanks fire into the camp while others cheered.

Ten militants were killed in the building in Tripoli and seven in the refugee camp, security officials said. They said 22 soldiers had also been killed.

The violence adds one more destabilizing factor to conflict-ridden Lebanon, already in the midst of its worst political crisis between the Western-backed government and pro-Syrian opposition since the end of the 1975-90 Lebanese civil war.

It was a rare clash between the Lebanese army and militants and the first major fighting between the security forces and Palestinians since the early 90s when troops fought Palestinian guerrillas in Ein el-Hilweh refugee camp in southern Lebanon.
Posted by: Frank G   2007-05-20 15:17  

#4  Why haven't the Lebonnese just sent all these people back to Gaza or whereever? Are they getting enough from the UN to keep them that they are worth all this trouble?
Posted by: sam3rd   2007-05-20 09:19  

#3  Peanut butter jelly time!
Posted by: Excalibur   2007-05-20 07:24  

#2  Pop, sizzle, pop.
Posted by: gromgoru   2007-05-20 00:50  

#1  The Pot That Stirs Itself(tm)
Posted by: M. Murcek   2007-05-20 00:27  

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