Lebanese army battles Islamists in Palestinian camp

By Nazih Siddiq

NAHR AL-BARED, Lebanon (Reuters) - Battles engulfed a Palestinian refugee camp in north Lebanon on Monday in the second day of fighting between the Lebanese army and al Qaeda-inspired militants which has killed 79 people.

Black smoke billowed from the Nahr al-Bared camp, home to 40,000 Palestinians, as tanks shelled positions held by Fatah al-Islam fighters hitting back with machinegun and grenade fire.

In the capital Beirut, a bomb rocked a shopping area in the mainly Sunni Muslim district of Verdun wounding at least seven people, security sources and witnesses said.

Fighting subsided in the afternoon amid efforts to allow an aid convoy into the coastal camp in north Lebanon, but clashes resumed before the U.N. and Red Cross vehicles could move in.

Prime Minister Fouad Siniora's government, at a meeting on Monday to discuss the fighting, stressed the need "to put an end" to Fatah al-Islam, Information Minister Ghazi Aridi said.

The decision came after a representative of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group told Reuters a truce had been agreed, although sporadic gunfire could still be heard into the night.

The violence showed how fragile security remains in Lebanon, racked by political and sectarian tensions since last year's Israeli-Hezbollah war in the south and by a series of unsolved assassinations before and after Syria's 2005 troop pullout.

The conflict is Lebanon's worst internal violence since the 1975-90 civil war.

Palestinians in the camp said thousands had fled their homes on the edges of Nahr al-Bared, where fighting was most intense, to shelter deeper inside the camp. More than 150 people had been wounded and dozens of homes destroyed, Palestinian sources said.

"We are under siege," Palestinian Hisham Yacoub said by telephone from within the camp. "There's no water, no electricity or milk for the children," said Mohammed Abu Laila, also talking by phone from the camp.

Abu Salim, a spokesman for Fatah al-Islam, threatened to take the fighting to other parts of the country if the army did not ease its bombardment. "If the situation stays like this we will not be silent and will definitely move the battle outside (the nearby city) of Tripoli," he told Reuters by telephone.

At least 20 militants, 32 soldiers and 27 civilians have been killed since the fighting erupted early on Sunday. Fifty-five soldiers have been wounded.

SOLIDARITY

The United States, which firmly backs the Beirut government, said Lebanon was justified in attacking the militants.

"Extremists that are trying to topple that young democracy need to be reined in," said U.S. President George W. Bush.