A gunman was killed and a Lebanese army officer wounded in a shootout near the Palestinian refugee camp of Ein el-Hilweh in south Lebanon.Security sources said the incident occurred late Wednesday when three unidentified assailants in a white Renault Rapid opened fire on the soldiers as they tried to make their way through an army checkpoint at the western entrance to the camp. They said army troops returned fire wounding one gunman, Issa Qiblawi. The second gunman was arrested while the third fled, the sources said. But Qiblawi died of his wounds soon afterwards. "The vehicle drove past the checkpoint and when troops fired warning shots, they were shot at and an exchange of fire developed," one reporter said.
An explosives expert was dispatched to the scene to examine the car the assailants were in. A Palestinian official at Ein al-Hilweh said the three attackers were members of the Islamic grouping Jund al-Sham and Issa Qiblawi was the brother of Sheikh Qiblawi, killed in 2004 in Iraq while fighting for al-Qaida. The shootout came almost two weeks after a would-be suicide bomber was shot and killed by Lebanese soldiers as he tried to detonate an explosives belt at a checkpoint on the edge of Ein el-Hilweh. A Palestinian official has said the suspect killed on May 31 was most likely a Saudi citizen.
Members of extremist groups believed to have links with al-Qaida have settled in Palestinian refugee camps across Lebanon in recent years, particularly in Ein el-Hilweh, which is partly controlled by Jund al-Sham. The refugee camps are off limits to Lebanese authorities with Palestinian factions in charge of security.