Lebanese Cut Power and Water, Then Shell 'Palestinian Camp'

Arutz Sheva ^ | 5-21-07 | Nissan Ratzlav-Katz

[SJackson]

(IsraelNN.com) In the wake of clashes with a Syrian-affiliated terrorist organization operating in Lebanon, Fatah Al-Islam, the Lebanese government ordered services cut to the northern town the terrorists are using as their base of operations. The Lebanese army also shelled the town, which is designated by Lebanon as a "Palestinian refugee camp."

Residents of the camp told reporters that many homes have been demolished and bodies were strewn in the streets.

By Monday morning, the ongoing clashes between Fatah Al-Islam and the Lebanese military led to the deaths of at least 22 soldiers, 25 Islamist terrorists and uncounted numbers of non-combatants in Nahr Al-Bard and Tripoli, Lebanon's second-largest city, as well as in Beirut. Some estimates put the total death toll at 65.

The clashes between Lebanese security forces and the Fatah Al-Islam terrorists erupted in Tripoli, when soldiers raided a terrorist safe-house in pursuit of bank robbers on Sunday. "We traced them to an apartment in Tripoli, which turned out to be an office for Fatah Al-Islam," Interior Security Forces chief Ashraf Rifi said. The government troops were met by armed resistance, which quickly led to fierce clashes in Tripoli and in the Fatah Al-Islam home base of Nahr Al-Bard.

As an early tactic in their war against the Islamist group, the Lebanese authorities cut off electricity, water and communications in the Nahr Al-Bard camp. In response to a successful Fatah Al-Islam assault on nearby military outposts on Sunday, army tanks shelled the camp intermittently throughout the day. Army sources claimed the shells were aimed at Fatah Al-Islam headquarters, while residents of the camp told reporters that many homes in the camp have been randomly demolished and bodies were strewn in the streets. The shelling continued on Monday.

Within hours of the worst of Sunday's clashes, a car bomb exploded outside a shopping mall in a central-eastern Beirut neighborhood. One woman was killed and dozens were injured when a bomb placed under a car in the mall parking lot was detonated by unknown terrorists. The neighborhood is known to be majority Christian.

The Lebanese cabinet is meeting Monday to decide whether or not to send troops into Nahr Al-Bard.

Reactions Among Lebanese and in the Palestinian Authority Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora said the fighting was a "dangerous attempt at harming Lebanese security."

Lebanese civilians have expressed to various media outlets their strong support for their military's assault against the Islamists in the Nahr Al-Bard camp. Pictures in several on-line newspapers show Lebanese citizens in the streets cheering on soldiers making their way through the streets of Tripoli.

Elias Bejjani, chairman of a Lebanese expatriate coalition in Canada, the Lebanese -Canadian Coordinating Council (LCCC), issued a press release calling for the Lebanese military "to deal decisively and with military means with the situation in the Nahr El-Bared Camp once and for all, because not doing so will weaken the army and give the Lebanese opposition and those behind them in the Syrian regime a new impetus to repeat what happened several times in the past."

The LCCC further claimed, "The rulers in Damascus had brought in its mercenary fighters several months ago to the Palestinian Camps in Lebanon with the objective of stirring strife, creating an anarchy situation, obstructing the creation of the International Tribunal [on the assassination of former prime minister Rafik al-Hariri -ed.] and, most importantly, prevent the rise of a strong self-reliant Lebanese State and institutions that would spread its control over every inch of Lebanese soil and disarm the militias and impose the rule of law."

Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah organization denied any connection with Fatah Al-Islam and has condemned the current clashes in Lebanon. However, Fatah Al-Islam is an offshoot of factions that split with Yasser Arafat's Fatah in the 1980s. Lebanese security officials have linked Fatah Al-Islam variously to Al-Qaeda and to Syrian intelligence.

[roses of sharon]

Why do governments allow these hell holes to remain open?

Why do governments allow these camps to be autonomous?

Are these governments waiting for Israel to give up its State? And leave its land an intrastructor to the Pals?

Are they waiting for Israel to be “wiped off the map”?

After 60 years, and generations of Pals being radicalized even further, what is the solution?

[VaBthang4]

We’ll see if Syria can use this as a pretext for sending in their Army to “stabilize the area”.

[VaBthang4]

These were terrorists robbing banks for funding...

Contrary to this article, Fatah al-Islam, is actually an offshoot of the Syrian-based group Fatah al-Intifada, is headed by Shaker Abssi, who was born in Jericho in 1955 and was linked to the former leader of Al-Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

Abssi, who was jailed for three years by Syria in 2003 and is also wanted by Jordan on suspicion of involvement in the 2002 killing of a US diplomat.

[knighthawk]

I hope they manage to kill of the rats pretty quickly. Good thing no one cares about it because now Arabs are killing Arabs. Imagine the outcry if Israel did this...