.Lebanese Army Clashes With Islamist Militants; 70 Die
May 21 (Bloomberg) -- Lebanon's soldiers clashed for a second day with Islamist militants in the northern city of Tripoli as Lebanese officials accused neighboring Syria of sparking the bloodshed that may have killed 70 people.
Gunfights yesterday killed about 40 people, including 27 soldiers, the state-owned National News Agency said. As well as the soldiers and militants, another 30 people may have died yesterday and today inside the Nahr el-Bared camp, which houses about 30,000 Palestinian refugees and is at the center of the fighting, the agency reported.
In Beirut, six people were wounded by a bomb that rocked the Verdun district in the mainly Muslim western sector of the city, Agence France-Presse reported. The bomb was placed under a car outside a Russian cultural center, AFP said, citing police.
Television footage from Tripoli on Arab and international channels showed smoke rising above that predominantly Sunni Muslim city, as the army aimed shells at militants from the Palestinian group Fatah al-Islam. A two-hour cease-fire was brokered today by the International Committee of the Red Cross to evacuate the wounded and remove bodies, the state news agency said.
Syrian Involvement Suspected
While all major political parties in Lebanon, including those allied with Syria, said they supported the Lebanese army and condemned Fatah al-Islam, the violence may be an attempt by Syria to keep pressure on the Lebanese government, analysts and Lebanese government members said.
``This is another attempt to blackmail Lebanon,'' Marwan Hamadeh, Lebanese minister of telecommunications, said in a telephone interview today, accusing Syria of instigating and supporting the group. ``Lebanon will not submit to this kind of pressure.''
Syria's ambassador to the United Nations said his government had nothing to do with the violence and that Fatah al-Islam's leaders are members of al-Qaeda who had been jailed in Syria for terrorist activities.
``They spent 3 to 4 years in jail for belonging to al- Qaeda,'' Ambassador Bashar Ja'afari told reporters at the UN in New York. ``After they were freed, we noticed that they came back to some of their terrorist practices in the field of training some new elements. Then they ran away from Syrian justice.''
The U.S. State Department's report on terrorism for 2006 describes Fatah al-Islam as linked to al-Qaeda and says the Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon have become ``safe havens'' for the group.
U.S. Support
The U.S. gave its support to the Lebanese army's attacks. ``It would appear that the Lebanese security forces are working in a legitimate manner'' in response to ``provocations and attacks by violent extremists who have operated out of a Palestinian refugee camp near Tripoli,'' State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters in Washington.
The violence in Tripoli has strengthened opposition at the UN to a U.S. and European effort to create a special court for political assassinations in Lebanon, diplomats said.
The U.S. and its European allies have given Security Council member governments a draft resolution creating a court to handle cases of persons accused of politically motivated assassinations, including the February 2005 truck bombing that killed former Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri.
``To add the tribunal to what we have seen on TV, we would need to have our heads examined,'' Ambassador Dumisani Kumalo of South Africa, a Security Council member, said. ``We were for going very slow to start with. Now we are even slower.''
Hariri Urged Withdrawal
Hariri had been pressing for the withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon, where they had been stationed since the end of the country's 1975-1990 civil war.
The Syrian troops left Lebanon later in 2005. Since last summer's war between Israel and the Shiite Muslim militia group Hezbollah, Shiite and Christian political parties supported by Syria have pushed for the Lebanese government to step down, saying it's too close to the U.S.
``The Syrians have a lot of interest in keeping pressure on Lebanon and taking advantage of the country's precarious situation,'' said Anne Giudicelli, a former French diplomat who founded and runs Paris-based Terrorisc, a risk analyst specializing in the Middle East. ``Obviously, it's hard to have proof.''
Human Shields
The fighting erupted after security forces raided a building in Tripoli to arrest suspects in a bank robbery, the British Broadcasting Corp. reported. Alleged members of Fatah al-Islam then attacked army posts at Nahr el-Bared, the BBC said.
Hamadeh said the fighting was dragging on because the militants were using the camp's population as human shields.
``The innocent Palestinians inside the camp are hostages,'' Hamadeh said. ``Our biggest fear is if this issue spreads beyond the camp.''
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon asked parties to the conflict to ``exercise maximum restraint'' and said he had been on the phone with Middle East leaders to express his concern.
Fatah al-Islam is an Islamic splinter group of the mainstream and secular Palestinian Fatah group. It has no more than a few dozen members, said Alain Flandrois, deputy director general of GEOS, another Paris-based risk analyst.
The group has pledged allegiance to al-Qaeda, though it's unclear whether it has any operational link to Osama bin Laden's international terrorist group, Flandrois said.
`Lot of Autonomy'
``Saying you are al-Qaeda has a certain publicity and political impact that helps put pressure on the government,'' Flandrois said. ``But these groups operate with a lot of autonomy. The Lebanese are more likely to see the hand of Syria rather than al-Qaeda.''
In a statement on its official Web site, Hezbollah condemned Fatah al-Islam's attack and praised the Lebanese army. The Hezbollah statement said that its allies, the fellow Shiite Amal group as well as the Free Patriotic Movement of Christian General Michel Aoun, also condemned the attack. Hezbollah, Amal and Aoun are allied with Syria, oppose the international tribunal, and are pressuring the Lebanese government to step down.
The commander of the mainstream Fatah movement in Lebanon, Sultan Abu al-Aynayn, said Fatah al-Islam is a ``gang of criminals'' and condemned it for attacking the Lebanese army, the Beirut-based Daily Star said.
Bloomberg
Is it just me, or do you think Lebanon learned it's lesson and finds it more in it's interest to confront the radicals, before they get hit the bill.
Gunfights yesterday killed about 40 people, including 27 soldiers, the state-owned National News Agency said. As well as the soldiers and militants, another 30 people may have died yesterday and today inside the Nahr el-Bared camp, which houses about 30,000 Palestinian refugees and is at the center of the fighting, the agency reported.
In Beirut, six people were wounded by a bomb that rocked the Verdun district in the mainly Muslim western sector of the city, Agence France-Presse reported. The bomb was placed under a car outside a Russian cultural center, AFP said, citing police.
Television footage from Tripoli on Arab and international channels showed smoke rising above that predominantly Sunni Muslim city, as the army aimed shells at militants from the Palestinian group Fatah al-Islam. A two-hour cease-fire was brokered today by the International Committee of the Red Cross to evacuate the wounded and remove bodies, the state news agency said.
Syrian Involvement Suspected
While all major political parties in Lebanon, including those allied with Syria, said they supported the Lebanese army and condemned Fatah al-Islam, the violence may be an attempt by Syria to keep pressure on the Lebanese government, analysts and Lebanese government members said.
``This is another attempt to blackmail Lebanon,'' Marwan Hamadeh, Lebanese minister of telecommunications, said in a telephone interview today, accusing Syria of instigating and supporting the group. ``Lebanon will not submit to this kind of pressure.''
Syria's ambassador to the United Nations said his government had nothing to do with the violence and that Fatah al-Islam's leaders are members of al-Qaeda who had been jailed in Syria for terrorist activities.
``They spent 3 to 4 years in jail for belonging to al- Qaeda,'' Ambassador Bashar Ja'afari told reporters at the UN in New York. ``After they were freed, we noticed that they came back to some of their terrorist practices in the field of training some new elements. Then they ran away from Syrian justice.''
The U.S. State Department's report on terrorism for 2006 describes Fatah al-Islam as linked to al-Qaeda and says the Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon have become ``safe havens'' for the group.
U.S. Support
The U.S. gave its support to the Lebanese army's attacks. ``It would appear that the Lebanese security forces are working in a legitimate manner'' in response to ``provocations and attacks by violent extremists who have operated out of a Palestinian refugee camp near Tripoli,'' State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters in Washington.
The violence in Tripoli has strengthened opposition at the UN to a U.S. and European effort to create a special court for political assassinations in Lebanon, diplomats said.
The U.S. and its European allies have given Security Council member governments a draft resolution creating a court to handle cases of persons accused of politically motivated assassinations, including the February 2005 truck bombing that killed former Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri.
``To add the tribunal to what we have seen on TV, we would need to have our heads examined,'' Ambassador Dumisani Kumalo of South Africa, a Security Council member, said. ``We were for going very slow to start with. Now we are even slower.''
Hariri Urged Withdrawal
Hariri had been pressing for the withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon, where they had been stationed since the end of the country's 1975-1990 civil war.
The Syrian troops left Lebanon later in 2005. Since last summer's war between Israel and the Shiite Muslim militia group Hezbollah, Shiite and Christian political parties supported by Syria have pushed for the Lebanese government to step down, saying it's too close to the U.S.
``The Syrians have a lot of interest in keeping pressure on Lebanon and taking advantage of the country's precarious situation,'' said Anne Giudicelli, a former French diplomat who founded and runs Paris-based Terrorisc, a risk analyst specializing in the Middle East. ``Obviously, it's hard to have proof.''
Human Shields
The fighting erupted after security forces raided a building in Tripoli to arrest suspects in a bank robbery, the British Broadcasting Corp. reported. Alleged members of Fatah al-Islam then attacked army posts at Nahr el-Bared, the BBC said.
Hamadeh said the fighting was dragging on because the militants were using the camp's population as human shields.
``The innocent Palestinians inside the camp are hostages,'' Hamadeh said. ``Our biggest fear is if this issue spreads beyond the camp.''
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon asked parties to the conflict to ``exercise maximum restraint'' and said he had been on the phone with Middle East leaders to express his concern.
Fatah al-Islam is an Islamic splinter group of the mainstream and secular Palestinian Fatah group. It has no more than a few dozen members, said Alain Flandrois, deputy director general of GEOS, another Paris-based risk analyst.
The group has pledged allegiance to al-Qaeda, though it's unclear whether it has any operational link to Osama bin Laden's international terrorist group, Flandrois said.
`Lot of Autonomy'
``Saying you are al-Qaeda has a certain publicity and political impact that helps put pressure on the government,'' Flandrois said. ``But these groups operate with a lot of autonomy. The Lebanese are more likely to see the hand of Syria rather than al-Qaeda.''
In a statement on its official Web site, Hezbollah condemned Fatah al-Islam's attack and praised the Lebanese army. The Hezbollah statement said that its allies, the fellow Shiite Amal group as well as the Free Patriotic Movement of Christian General Michel Aoun, also condemned the attack. Hezbollah, Amal and Aoun are allied with Syria, oppose the international tribunal, and are pressuring the Lebanese government to step down.
The commander of the mainstream Fatah movement in Lebanon, Sultan Abu al-Aynayn, said Fatah al-Islam is a ``gang of criminals'' and condemned it for attacking the Lebanese army, the Beirut-based Daily Star said.
Bloomberg
Is it just me, or do you think Lebanon learned it's lesson and finds it more in it's interest to confront the radicals, before they get hit the bill.
posted by madtom at 7:24 PM
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