Breaking: Fierce Fighting Resumes As Lebanese Tanks Prepare To Storm Refugee Camp…
Jun 1 03:51 AM US/Eastern
By BASSEM MROUE
Associated Press Writer
UPDATE: Morning’s Casualties So Far
U.S. HELPS OUT
TRIPOLI, Lebanon (AP) - Under the cover of artillery barrages, dozens of Lebanese army tanks and armored carriers moved toward a Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon Friday in pursuit of Islamic militants holed up inside.
The artillery bombardment sent clouds of white smoke rising above the Nahr el-Bared camp where Fatah Islam militants have been hanging on in a 13-day siege by the Lebanese army. The shelling also ignited fires in the camp that spewed black smoke. The militants have barricaded themselves in residential neighborhoods of narrow, winding streets and apartment buildings.
About 50 armored carriers, battle tanks and military vehicles from elite units massed at the northern edge of the camp and drove toward the forward-most positions, according to AP Television News crew at the scene.
There was no confirmation that the army units were making a final push to take over the camp, or were just advancing to grab territory and isolate the militants in pockets. But a significant decrease in shelling, accompanied by a rise in machine gun fire from armored carriers and exchanges of automatic rifle fire, suggested the troops were already engaging the militants.
Television footage showed the movement of T-55 Russian-made tanks, French-made Panhard tanks, M-113 U.S.-built armored personnel carriers and jeeps with 106mm rifles mounted on them. Sandbags were packed on some of the vehicles.
Military officials would not comment on the troop movements and journalists were pushed back further from the camp. But a statement by the army command said troops came under fire from the militants and the army was “responding with accurate and decisive fire to deter them.” The statement said the army was at the same time avoiding civilian casualties.
The concentrated bombardment began in the morning, with heavy barrages targeting all parts of the camp.
Sporadic gunfire exchanges have continued daily since a truce halted three days of heavy fighting.
A Lebanese soldier was killed by Islamic militants’ sniper fire on Thursday.
The death Thursday raised to 32 the number of soldiers killed since fighting between the army and Fatah Islam militants began on May 20. At least 20 civilians and about 60 militants also have been killed.
The army has ringed the Nahr el-Bared camp with hundreds of soldiers, backed by artillery and tanks, poised to storm the camp and prevent militants from fleeing. The government has vowed to crush the militants, who have said they will fight till the end.
Thousands of Palestinians have fled the camp, but thousands more are still inside, along with the Fatah Islam fighters.
On Thursday, army commander Gen. Michel Suleiman toured the military positions around the Nahr el-Bared camp in the northern city of Tripoli, vowing to track down the militants responsible for killing the soldiers.
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Let’s hope the Lebanese put these criminals in the ground.
May 31st, 2007 at 10:51 pmnow that the Lebanese FINALLY realise that AQ is a terrible threat they are pusuing a correct adjenda to rid their conutry of this menace to every civilised and not so civilised nation on earth.
June 1st, 2007 at 12:21 amTis a pity they didnt see it that way last year and then they could have really got the AQ rats on the run with a little help from their southern neighbours
Last year they got pounded by Hamas’ media campaign, no? Tide is turning…add AQ to any target group and it’s cool to go after them….now to deal with them hiding in burkas…and claims of civilian damage…how the heck does the reporter know it’s a civilian or AQ? ESP?
go get um..j
June 1st, 2007 at 2:06 amThis was the only way the lebanese government could assert their own authority, while hezbollah undermines it. A good palestinian, is a dead palestinian since they are the root cause of the blood shed in that reason. they are the cause celebre amongst the mujihideen, yet they are just a bunch of beggars living on UN welfare, while reproducing great numbers of future bombs. they are a useless group of people that have no hope. murder is their way of life.
June 1st, 2007 at 2:45 amThis was the only way the lebanese government could assert their own authority, while hezbollah undermines it. A good palestinian, is a dead palestinian since they are the root cause of the blood shed in that region. they are the cause celebre amongst the mujihideen, yet they are just a bunch of beggars living on UN welfare, while reproducing great numbers of future bombs. they are a useless group of people that have no hope. murder is their way of life.
June 1st, 2007 at 2:46 amway to go TJ if you repeat yourself enough the message gets thru.I agree with everything you said and again!!
June 1st, 2007 at 3:17 amWe have to remember that the pals are a poor stateless people who had to run away when the mighty arab armies were going to exterminate the jooos! in 1948 and have been kept in the cesspool reffo camps by their caring arab neighbours ever since. Given no help except from donation from the west( for g-ds sake), no chance to become citizens of the countries they fled to and never invited to become useful people in these countries.
Instead they are the hyenas of the arab world, hiring themselves to the highest bidder for the thuggest manifest while rotting in camps and whining that no-one helps them.
And they want a state.
This shit could have been overcome 60 years ago but the pals always want to be the victims, even the saudis admit that they are pleased that the other arab countries have the pals and not them.
So pals, breed on,feel rejected,train your younsters to hate, dont ever educate them and one day your alla the red hot( or is shit hot) god will give you the redemption of another existance. Take it soon
i love how all their materials are made in the US. old vietnam m16’s and their personel carriers are from the 70’s to!
June 1st, 2007 at 9:24 amIt’s a wonderful thing for our enemies to be fighting each other, but at the end of the day (week, month, whatever) there will be a victorious Sunni or Shia group, unchallenged, and consolidating power. I’m afraid that the only reason the Lebanese “government” is attacking the “camps” is that Al Qaieda is an extremist Sunni organization, and they have grown too strong with support from the arab refugees living in the “camps”. Lebanon was majority Christian until very recently, but the way things are going, it will probably become a Shia oriented Sharia state before too long. God forbid.
June 1st, 2007 at 12:00 pmFor people of my generation, if you can remember Sept. 1970. Jordan’s King Hussein went to war against the PLO when they got a little to independant as guests of his country. Hence, thats’ where you got the “black september” group from.He forceably kicked them right out of the country. Now 37 years later the Lebanese government is finding out the same lesson the Jordanians went thru back then. And I’m hearing about this agreement made 40 yrs. ago about letting the Palestinians run their own refugee camps without Lebanese over sight. So that little skirmish between 1975 and 1990 didn’t negate that little pact. If there is one lesson you can pull from all this anarchy is that the Islamic Middle Eastern countries don’t give a fig about the Palestinian problem at all.Unless they can use them for political or violent pawns.
June 1st, 2007 at 12:51 pmKill’em all. Let Allah sort’em out.
June 3rd, 2007 at 3:31 pm