Issue No. 599
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15 - 21 August 2002 Issue No. 599 Region |
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 | Recommend this page | ||
Fiery Clashes at Ain Al-Hilweh
LEBANESE Islamist militants attacked strongholds of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's Fatah group in Lebanon's largest refugee camp on Tuesday, igniting a clash that killed two fighters and wounded seven.
Click to view captionTwo Fatah fighters take up position at the Ain Al-Hilweh refugee camp Tension has been running high at the Ain Al-Hilweh refugee camp since last month, when Lebanese Islamist groups clashed with Fatah and other Palestinian factions over their role in handing over a wanted militant to the Lebanese army.
Security sources said fighters belonging to the militant Islamist Dunniyeh group attacked Fatah positions using automatic gunfire and grenades, killing one of the Palestinian fighters. Fatah guerrillas fired back, killing one of their Lebanese opponents.
Fatah is one of a host of armed Palestinian groups that effectively run the refugee camp near the southern port city of Sidon, some 45km south of Beirut.
The exchange of gunfire and rocket-propelled grenades, which lasted for one hour, damaged several houses, wrecked cars and knocked down water pipes in the shanty town, which is home to some 75,000 Palestinians.
Islamist groups in the camp, where the Lebanese army confines its presence to checkpoints outside entrances, have threatened to attack any group that hands other suspected militants over to Lebanese authorities.
"On this blessed morning, our rockets have shattered the sleep of the traitorous apostates [of Palestinian groups]," said Jamaat an-Nour, an Islamist group linked to the Dunniyeh faction, in a statement. "We will not hesitate to turn the camp and all of Lebanon into a bloodbath."
Many wanted Lebanese and Palestinian gunmen are believed to be hiding in Ain Al-Hilweh. A Fatah official said factions in the camp were urging militants to surrender.
"We agreed to issue a warning to the members of this group to hand themselves over. If they surrender, they avoid bloodshed, and if they don't, we are determined to arrest them and hand them over to the Lebanese state," Fatah's Khaled Aref said.
Abu Ramez Sahmarani, a member of the Dunniyeh group, rejected the call and said his group would avenge the killing of one of its members in Tuesday's clash.
"We will not hand ourselves over to those infidels and we will not leave the camp even if there is a bloodbath. We are on Islamic territory and among Muslims," Sahmarani said.
Fatah and other Palestinian groups which helped broker the arrest last month of Badie Hamadeh, a Lebanese man accused of killing three security officers, have been the targets of attacks in the camp in recent weeks.
Some of the suspects are wanted in connection with an Islamist uprising in 2000 in Dunniyeh in northern Lebanon. The army crushed the revolt after about 40 people were killed, following some of the bloodiest clashes since Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil war.
Most Ain Al-Hilweh residents locked themselves indoors on Tuesday while Palestinian fighters roamed the streets. Some were seen encircling the area where the Lebanese militants are believed to be hiding.
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