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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Leb army in standoff at Paleo refugee camp |
| 2007-03-19 |
| Tensions ran high on Sunday at the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp, where an estimated 150 to 200 members of the militant off-shoot of Fatah al-Intifada, Fatah al-Islam, were holed up despite pressure from camp residents, security sources said. With a beefed-up Army presence around the Tripoli-based camp, the possibility of an armed confrontation loomed large. "Any individuals belonging to either Fatah al-Intifada or Fatah al-Islam who are wanted by the judiciary will be detained by the army if they leave the camp," a source at the Defense Ministry told The Daily Star. The source said that the army did not have a list of wanted individuals. A separate security source said pressure from inside the camp "will likely force Fatah al-Islam out of the camp." The senior security adviser to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Jibril Rajoub, in Beirut for an academic conference, told The Daily Star on Sunday that the situation in Nahr al-Bared "needs to be treated carefully by Palestinians in conjunction with the Lebanese government so as not to harm Lebanese-Palestinian relations and threaten coexistence in Lebanon." Rajoub said that Fatah al-Islam "has nothing to do with the Palestinian cause and does not serve the cause." Rajoub had given a news conference on Saturday, in which he said that "the resistance should only be in Palestine and nowhere else." A delegation of community leaders and merchants from Nahr al-Bared, objecting to the presence of the militant group in the camp, submitted a formal objection on Saturday to the camp's Popular Committee. The delegation asked the committee to "find an immediate solution to the Fatah al-Islam group," stressing the deteriorating economic situation inside the camp. The delegation stated doubt, however, as to the group's alleged involvement in twin bus-bombings on February 13 in Ain Alaq that killed three people, and other terrorist plots the faction is accused of planning to carry out. Four suspects in the Ain Alaq bombings currently in custody have claimed to be members of Fatah al-Islam, placing the whole militant group in the cross-hairs of Lebanese security forces. |
| Posted by:ryuge |
| #1 "You folks may want to step way back from the hovel, we've got an airstrike inbound..." |
| Posted by: mojo 2007-03-19 10:17 |