Forces of the Lebanese Army engaged in armed confrontations Wednesday with Palestinian militants in a town in the Western Beqaa region, a Lebanese security source told KUNA. The source added Fatah's Abu Musa fighters opened fire on an army patrol in the town of Eita. The area was last year the scene of a similar incident in which a Lebanese was killed.A Lebanese soldier was seriously wounded in the incident, a Lebanese security source said. The source told KUNA that while an army patrol was monitoring the area, members of the Fatah-Intifada, led by Abu Musa Al-Nar, opened fire against the patrol critically wounding one of the soldiers. The source added that the Lebanese army besieged the seven known posts of Fatah. The Lebanese dialogue conference had recently unanimously demanded Palestinian disarmament outside the camps within six months.
ADDITIONAL: One Lebanese soldier and a Palestinian militant were wounded in clashes on Wednesday between the Lebanese army and Palestinian militants in east Lebanon. The clashes broke out after an army patrol was attacked by the militants, the army said. The AFP news agency reported on Thursday that both sides sent reinforcements to the area overnight.
The militants were from Fatah-Intifada, a secular, Syrian-backed group that has opposed peace agreements with Israel. The group has a camp on Lebanese soil, about two kilometres from the border with Syria.
Lebanese police told AFP that the Palestinian group smuggled 15 military vehicles carrying fighters, arms and ammunition into Lebanon from Syria overnight on Wednesday. AFP also reported that the militants took up positions in the mountains overlooking the camps in which clashes took place yesterday.
Fatah-Intifada, led by radical Palestinian militant Abu Moussa, was established in 1983. Its headquarters are based in Damascus.
During Wednesday's clashes, a Lebanese soldier was kidnapped by the militants. He was later released, after the army threatened to break up one of the Palestinian group's camps.