Gunfire reported in Palestinian refugee camp south of Beirut

BEIRUT - Gunfire erupted in a Palestinian refugee camp on the southern edges of the Lebanese capital on Friday, security officials said.

The security officials said a clash involving automatic riffles took place Friday morning in the refugee camp of Bourj el-Barajneh of south Beirut.

The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to make a formal comment, had no word on what caused the fight or who was involved.

Lebanese TV stations said the fighting was between two rival Palestinian factions, the mainstream Fatah group and members of the Syria-backed radical Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command.

But an official of the PFLP-GC in the camp said the clash was between two families - the al-Bashir and al-Habet - that developed into a gunfight near the group's offices after Friday noon prayer. "We were caught in the middle but we did not respond," Ramez Mustafa, a PFLP-GC official in the camp, told The Associated Press.

However, the chief PFLP-GC spokesman, who is based in neighboring Syria, said a gunfight did erupt between Fatah and the PFLP-GC overnight. Fatah gunmen tried to seize a PFLP-GC office, said chief spokesman Anwar Raja. "There was an attempt at dawn today to take over one of the main (PFLP-GC) offices," Raja said on the telephone. "Clashes erupted with Fatah security members," he said.

Khaled Aref, a senior Fatah official in Lebanon, said two of his fighters were wounded in the gunfight, accusing the PFLP-GC of trying to storm a Fatah office.

It was not clear whether Raja and Aref were referring to the same incident or if there were two separate clashes.

Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon are generally known for lawlessness and armed groups vying for control. The Nahr el-Bared refugee camp in northern Lebanon was the scene of heavy fighting between Lebanese troops and al-Qaida-inspired Islamic militants from May to September. That battle left hundreds killed.

Since then, tension has continued in some of the 11 other Palestinian refugee camps across the country, amid fears of a repetition of the violence.