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Lebanon: Palestinian Protest at Beddawi Turns Bloody - Army Kills 3
Three demonstrators were shot dead on Friday as angry Palestinians tried to march home to their besieged Nahr al-Bared camp in the north, even as Lebanese troops and Fatah al-Islam militants battled at the shantytown.The confrontation between the army and Palestinians was the first major trouble between the two sides since fighting broke out last month at Nahr al-Bared. An Nahar newspaper said Saturday that three protestors were killed and 50 others wounded. Premier Fouad Saniora, who was visiting Italy, spoke by phone with security officials and PLO representative Abbas Zaki, urging them to contain the incident. He warned that some groups, which he did not identify, might try to push the situation toward "acts that harm both the Lebanese and Palestinians," the state-run National News Agency said. After the army and Fatah al-Islam began battling May 20, thousands of Palestinian refugees fled Nahr al-Bared, and most took refuge at Beddawi, few kilometers away. With fighting dragging on at Nahr al-Bared, the displaced are now demanding to be allowed to return to their homes. On Friday, demonstrators massed at Beddawi to protest their situation, and some then tried to march toward the besieged camp. The state news agency ANI said after Friday prayers about 100 protesters rushed the military checkpoint outside Beddawi, forcing troops to open fire after they refused to pull back. The army issued a communiqué saying the demonstrators carried sticks and sharp tools and blocked the main road with tires and barriers. "Army troops worked hard to end this action peacefully but got no response from the protesters who tried to push their way into the military checkpoints, ignoring warning shots by soldiers," the communiqué said An Nahar said two soldiers were killed in a landmine explosion inside Nahr al-Bared Friday. Throughout the day, exchanges of light arms fire were punctuated by the crash of shells in the camp's southern sector to which Fatah al-Islam fighters have retreated as the army tries to crush the almost six-week-old attack. With any political solution increasingly unlikely, a group of Islamic clerics announced they were calling off their mediation efforts between the army and the militants. "The only way out is a political solution," they said in a statement handed out to reporters in Beirut. They insisted on the return of refugees and reconstruction of their homes, stressing the Lebanese army was responsible for the security of both Lebanese and Palestinian civilians. (AP-AFP-Naharnet) Posted by: mrp 2007-06-30 |
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