NAHR AL-BARED (Lebanon), May 28: Sporadic gunbattles and sniper fire erupted on Monday as Lebanese troops backed by tanks kept up a siege of Islamist fighters holed up in a Palestinian refugee camp.
The brief bouts of fighting around the Nahr al-Bared camp in northern Lebanon came amid efforts to find a resolution to the eight-day-old standoff which has witnessed the bloodiest internal clashes for decades.
A soldier was lightly wounded by sniper fire from the impoverished shantytown, and the army responded by bombarding fortifications set up by fighters from the Sunni Muslim group Fatah al-Islam, a spokesman said.
The rattle of gunfire reverberated around Nahr al-Bared at least twice during the day, prompting troops to fire shells towards the northern and eastern entrances where the Islamists are entrenched, correspondents said.
Hundreds of heavily armed soldiers, backed by tanks, armoured personnel carriers and machinegun-mounted jeeps, surround Nahr al-Bared where several thousand civilians remain trapped without running water, with little food and no electricity.
On the eighth day of the siege, political tensions were rising because of divisions over how to handle the standoff and a UN vote this week on the creation of a court to try suspects in the murder of ex-premier Rafiq Hariri.
Troops have kept Nahr al-Bared under siege since Fatah al-Islam attacked army targets on May 20, sparking fierce gunbattles in the camp and the nearby port city of Tripoli which have left 78 people dead.
According to UN estimates, between 3,000 and 8,000 of the 31,000 Palestinian refugees registered at Nahr al-Bared are still inside, while Prime Minister Fuad Siniora said on Sunday that 5,000 remained.
A government source said the authorities have given Palestinian groups in Lebanon “the chance to resolve the problems with Fatah al-Islam without any time restraints.” But mediation efforts were complicated on Sunday when a team of mediators came under fire when they entered the camp, according to their leader, Sheikh Mohamad al-Hajj.
“We are focusing on reaching a ceasefire in order to continue our efforts because we came under fire yesterday while inside the camp,” Sheikh Hajj said.
He said he was part of a three-member delegation of clerics from the Union of Palestinian Scholars which has won approval from Lebanese authorities, Palestinian factions and Fatah al-Islam to lead the mediation.
“We are still at the beginning of the mediation road, but we are determined to continue and to work as fast as possible,” Hajj said.—AFP
