A Lebanese soldier was shot dead on Monday at the entrance to the Nahr al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon, a military source said. Three people, two Lebanese and a Palestinian, were detained by the army, the source added. The clash took place after an argument at the army checkpoint outside the camp between the family of a sick Lebanese woman whose parents were trying to take her to hospital and soldiers posted there. According to the "popular committee" of Palestinian organizations in Nahr al-Bared, the camp's dispensary was unable to treat the woman and her family then decided to take her to an outside hospital. It said the family had been held up by searches at the checkpoint, and that she was dead on arrival at the hospital. Believing the delay had led to her death, relatives of the woman returned to the checkpoint and opened fire, killing soldier Rabih Mustapha, the "popular committee" said, adding there was no political motive behind the incident.
Tensions have run high at the camp since the arrival of an Islamist Palestinian group called Fatah al-Islam, accused by the government of being behind a bus bombing in a Christian area in February that killed three people. Last month a member of Fatah al-Islam was killed and another member of the group wounded in an exchange of fire at the camp during which two members of the mainstream Palestinian movement Fatah and a passerby were also wounded.