Moin91
SENIOR MEMBER
- Joined
- Nov 25, 2006
- Messages
- 2,338
- Reaction score
- 0
TRIPOLI: Eleven people were killed in fierce fighting between Lebanese soldiers and Al-Qaeda linked Islamist extremists in northern Lebanon on Sunday, a top security official said.
The battles erupted at dawn on the streets of the northern port city of Tripoli and inside the neighbouring Palestinian refugee camp of Nahr al-Bared.
Seven Lebanese soldiers and four militants from the Islamist group Fatah al-Islam were killed, the head of Lebanese Security Forces General Ashraf Rifi said.
A Palestinian source said at least 15 people were injured in the gunbattles around the camp, a stronghold of Fatah al-Islam.
A spokesman for the Lebanese security forces said fighting also erupted on several streets in Tripoli, where plumes of smoke could be seen rising over the city.
By longstanding convention, the Lebanese police and army do not enter Lebanon's 12 refugee camps, leaving security there to Palestinian militant groups.
Lebanese authorities have accused Fatah al-Islam, a Palestinian splinter group which is ideologically close to the Al-Qaeda network of Osama bin Laden, of working for the Syrian intelligence services.
The group was also accused of carrying out bus bombings in a mountainous Christian area north of Beirut in February that left three people dead.
But Fatah-Islam denied any involvement and accused the government of trying to pave the way for an offensive against the dozen or so Palestinian camps in Lebanon, which house more than half of the country's nearly 400,000 refugees.
Palestinian officials in Lebanon's refugee camps have expressed mounting concern about Fatah-Islam in recent months.
The battles erupted at dawn on the streets of the northern port city of Tripoli and inside the neighbouring Palestinian refugee camp of Nahr al-Bared.
Seven Lebanese soldiers and four militants from the Islamist group Fatah al-Islam were killed, the head of Lebanese Security Forces General Ashraf Rifi said.
A Palestinian source said at least 15 people were injured in the gunbattles around the camp, a stronghold of Fatah al-Islam.
A spokesman for the Lebanese security forces said fighting also erupted on several streets in Tripoli, where plumes of smoke could be seen rising over the city.
By longstanding convention, the Lebanese police and army do not enter Lebanon's 12 refugee camps, leaving security there to Palestinian militant groups.
Lebanese authorities have accused Fatah al-Islam, a Palestinian splinter group which is ideologically close to the Al-Qaeda network of Osama bin Laden, of working for the Syrian intelligence services.
The group was also accused of carrying out bus bombings in a mountainous Christian area north of Beirut in February that left three people dead.
But Fatah-Islam denied any involvement and accused the government of trying to pave the way for an offensive against the dozen or so Palestinian camps in Lebanon, which house more than half of the country's nearly 400,000 refugees.
Palestinian officials in Lebanon's refugee camps have expressed mounting concern about Fatah-Islam in recent months.
