A Palestinian man was killed and another seriously wounded Monday in clashes in Lebanon's largest refugee camp, officials said. Mainstream Fatah guerrillas battled members of Jund al-Sham, a small, radical Islamic group in the Ein el-Hilweh refugee camp near the southern port city of Sidon, Palestinian officials said. It was not clear what triggered the fighting, in which heavy machine guns were used.A Fatah official in the camp, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media, said the fighting began when Jund al-Sham gunmen tried to assassinate Mahmoud Abdul-Hamid Issa, a Fatah military official, as he walked with his bodyguards. One of the bodyguards, Abu Omra al-Aswad, was seriously wounded, the official said. A bystander, Mohammed Tayssir Awad, 20, was hit by a stray bullet and died instantly, other Palestinian officials in the camp said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not allowed to talk to the media.
Jund al-Sham, which means Soldiers of Syria, is a Sunni Muslim group of Syrian, Palestinian and Jordanian militants with links to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the head of al-Qaida in Iraq. The group was founded in Afghanistan and emerged in Ein el-Hilweh in 2004. Its estimated 50 members, who brand Christians and Shiite Muslims as "infidels," have had tense relations with Fatah guerrillas who control the camp, and have clashed with them in the past.
Ein el-Hilweh, home to about 75,000 Palestinian refugees, has been the scene of frequent bombings, assassinations and shootings among rival Palestinian factions. The camp is also believed to house many fugitives wanted by Lebanese authorities. The Lebanese army mans checkpoints outside the camp, but its troops do not enter.
| "You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy. We must be cautious." |