According to the latest news from Nahr-el Bared refugee camp, the morale of Fatah al-Islam is crumbling and their leader Shaker al-Absi has | D'ya think Hezbollah will lend out an old rusty amb'lance shot full of holes by |
| Right after a fair execution |
The unrest is centered around the Nahr al-Bared camp on the shores of the Mediterranean in northern Lebanon where troops have been laying siege to Al-Qaeda inspired Sunni Muslim extremists from Fatah al-Islam. But fears it could spread through other camps were fuelled when deadly fighting broke out Sunday at the Ein al-Helweh camp between the army and members of another shadowy group known as Jund al-Sham or Soldiers of Damascus.
| I thought it was "Soldiers of the Levant," but I guess they're better at Arabic than I am. |
Footage broadcast by Lebanese television showed the bus had been burned out by the force of the explosion. Several parked cars and the facade of a nearby shopping centre were also badly damaged. The security source said one suspect had been arrested.
The blast came as sporadic battles erupted again around Nahr al-Bared, where the well-armed band of Fatah al-Islam fighters have been able to resist the superior firepower of the Lebanese military for more than two weeks. However, the situation remained calm around Ein al-Helweh in the southern city of Sidon on Tuesday after the fighting that left two Islamists and two soldiers dead on Monday. "We cannot feel safe when there are lawless areas with armed Islamists," complained businessman Mohamad Zein as hundreds of Palestinian refugees set up temporary homes in the city's parks.
The latest flare-up raised concerns the violence could spread to more of the 12 camps which hold well over half the 400,000 Palestinians in Lebanon, mostly in conditions of abject poverty, and have become breeding grounds for extremism. Jund al-Sham, which has no clear hierarchy or particular leader, is believed to have about 50 militants armed with assault rifles, mortars and rocket-propelled grenades.
In north Lebanon, army troops including about 1,000 crack commandos were tightening the noose around the militants holed up in Nahr al-Bared, where both sides are vowing to fight to the end. "We will never surrender... we will fight till the last drop of blood," Fatah al-Islam spokesman Abu Salim Taha told Al-Jazeera television on Sunday. Prime Minister Fouad Siniora has warned Fatah al-Islam to surrender or be wiped out.
Washington announced it was considering sending more supplies to the Lebanese army after Congress last month approved a seven-fold increase in military assistance for 2007 to 280 million dollars. "There are some additional items that are already under consideration that we are talking about with the Lebanese forces," said US national security adviser Stephen Hadley.
The earlier US aid package had already drawn strong criticism from Russia whose Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned of its potential to "destabilize" Lebanon. But Lebanon’s prime minister responded by saying” Who will defend Lebanon if our army is weak ?"
It is not known whether the army is planning to enter the Nahr al-Bared camp for a final ground assault . By longstanding convention, it does not enter Lebanon's Palestinian refugee camps, leaving security inside to militant groups. Fatah al-Islam, a tiny but well-armed band of Sunni extremists which first surfaced only last year, is believed to have about 250 fighters, according to the prime minister.