Lebanese army poised to storm Palestinian refugee camp
Army preparing final assault against militants holed up in north Lebanon camp; 205 killed in eight weeks of fighting.
By News AgencyThe Lebanese army is preparing to launch a final assault against Al-Qaeda-inspired militants holed up at a Palestinian refugee camp in north Lebanon, political and security sources said on Wednesday.
Troops have been battling Fatah al-Islam fighters at Nahr al-Bared for nearly eight weeks in Lebanon's worst internal violence - which has so far killed 205 people - since the 1975-1990 civil war.
The army seized all militant positions on the outskirts of the camp last month but refrained from entering its official boundaries.
A 1969 agreement had banned Lebanese security forces from entering Palestinian camps. The agreement was annulled by the Lebanese parliament in the mid 1980s but the accord effectively stayed in place.
The sources said the army was concerned it was being dragged into a war of attrition with the militants dug in inside the narrow alleys of the camp and decided to move in to crush them after they refused repeated calls for surrender.
A soldier was killed by a sniper on Tuesday. At least 87 soldiers, 75 militants and 43 civilians have been killed in the fighting that began on May 20.
The sources said the army deployed extra troops in the area and was expected to use helicopter gunships and naval boats in any assault on the coastal encampment.
Three ambulances belonging to the Palestinian Red Crescent society entered the besieged camp to evacuate civilians still trapped inside who wished to leave.
Most of Nahr al-Bared's 40,000 inhabitants fled in the early days of the fighting but a few thousands have stayed behind.
The Lebanese government says Fatah al-Islam is a tool of Syrian intelligence, a charge Damascus and Fatah al-Islam deny. The group says it has no organisational ties with Al-Qaeda, but supports its militant ideology.
Some of its members - mainly Lebanese, Palestinians, Syrians and Saudis - have fought in Iraq. Security sources say at least 10 Saudis are among the dead militants.
The authorities have blamed the group for twin bus bombings in a Christian area near Beirut in February that killed three civilians. Investigators are also pointing a finger at the militants in the assassination of an anti-Syrian Christian government minister last November.
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Yes, Israeli civil society was shocked at what its leaders had just done. That - like this talkback - says a lot of important and positive things about Israeli society. But the fact remains that no Israeli was punished, and Sharon was even elected! That also says something, rather less positive, about Israeli society. And are you claiming that the Palestinians deserved to be massacred?
simply irrational and perhaps posess a neutrino of racist tendencies. :o)
does not deal in facts, and likely never will.
Within days of the events 250,000 Israelis protested the massacre of 2,000 Palestinians at Sabra/Shatilla. I wonder if as many as 2,500 Palestinians would protest a massacre of 250,000 Israelis. (Muslims danced in the streets when the World Trade Centre towers came down.) I highly suggest that you look up the history books and see what precipitated the Sabra/Shatilla massacres. If you were a Lebanese Christian you likely would have jumped at the opportunity to take part in them. I listened to one Lebanese women. She dug up her mothers corpse and moved it out of Lebanon rather than leave it with what she referred to as "those animals".
... that virtually every Palestinian wound seems to be self-inflicted. Let the Jewish people live in their homeland in peace, free of the pogroms they so long endured at the hands of 'civilised' Europeans and free of the past 50 years' continual threat and violence and lethal envy; recognise that Jerusalem was founded as, is, and always has been the Israelites' rightful capital; and create, invent, and add value to the world as the Israelis appear uniquely in the region to do, and you will find peace.
I hope that the Lebanese army will abide by international law. If it does so, of course, that will make it an exception to the general rule in the region. My own first reaction is sympathy for the Palestinians, who have been oppressed both by Israel and their fellow-Arabs. I don't see much sympathy here or in other talkbacks for the principal victims in all this bloodiness. Of course the Lebanese should have treated the Palestinian refugees better. But it sticks in the throat, I'm afraid, to hear apologists for Israel's behaviour say that. Yes, it was the Lebanese who massacred the Palestinians in Sabra and Shatila, and nothing can absolve them of murder. But do you have to be reminded that they were sent in by Israel?
The cringing, crying, Lebanese will find someone else to blame. It'll be ... oh the conspiracy suspects: The Mossad, the CIA or Saudia. Never ever ever ever the Lebanese. No, sirreee, the Lebanese never do anything at all. It could of course be a militia: Hezbollah, Amal whatever: but it's never ever the whiter than white Lebanese.
http://www.antimullah.com/ Clickfool: My esteemed popinjay. The above site will provide you with facts, if it is facts you profess to imbue.
Here is Clickfool already blaming Israel for the approaching massacre in the Nahr el-Bared refugee camp, His statistics are way off, but he doesn't care. Just get in that kick at the Zionist entity...
i do believe that all Palestinians living in lebanon should abide by lebanese law. However when comparing the situation in lebanon whith WB & Gaza, you have to add to the equation that Israel illigally occupies this land, while in lebanon, it is the palestinians who are violating the soverienty of the lebanese gavernment.
Palestinians are guests in lebanon and should abide by lebanese law. If they don't like it, they should leave. Fath-al-islam should surrender or be eliminated.
Yes, thats what I was reminded too as well. Dont know how you see it, but for me it was clear what would happen then in those days from the beginning, knowing some history of the Lebanon. It shows, that the PLO was then necessary for protection. IMHO Sharon was responsible for removing this protection without giving protection himself. The situation today is different, is it?
Where are those goody, goody good doers for the Palestinian cause What happened know that Lebanon is fighting them its OK? Lebanon Go and deport those terrorist gropes, Give them a boat and get them out (like the time Arafat was exiled from Lebanon) Make sure there is a hole in the boat, We don?t want them to do any mischief any more do we!!
The fact is, that the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp would not exist if the Israeli occupation did not exist. The fact is, the 205 killed in the latest round of violence in Lebanon would still be alive if the Israeli occupation did not exist. The fact is, that 4077 innocent Palestinians were killed in the occupied territories by Israel in the first 6 months of this year alone. The fact is that an additional 2494 innocent Palestinians were killed as a direct result of Mossad inspired violence. Not an especially shining resume.
It's a good thing we're out of Lebanon. It'll be hard to blame the coming masssacre on Israel, though I'm sure many will try.
Yes Dazed and Confused; there is a double standard. It exists in the hearts and minds of adults almost everywhere. Especially in the "hearts" and "minds" of Durson, Dickfool and Dutch!
Is this a summer rerun? It seems that we have lived through this episode already.
No one will say anything about this. It doesn't matter what happens to Palestinians at the hands of the Lebanese; nobody really cares. But if you substitute the word "Lebanese" with the word "Israeli" everyone will be up in arms, ranting and lecturing self-riteously. Watch and see.