Battles engulf Lebanon camp

NAHR AL-BARED – Lebanese troops unleashed artillery and tank barrages at al Qaeda-inspired militants dug-in at a Palestinian refugee camp yesterday, the third day of a military assault to crush the gunmen.

The troops had seized and destroyed several positions of the Fatah al-Islam group at the entrances of Nahr al-Bared and were tightening their grip on them, security sources said. But the militants, who have vowed to fight to the death, were putting up stiff resistance despite three days of near constant pounding from army tanks, artillery and gunships.Explosions rocked the camp as the crackle of machinegun fire echoed.Plumes of smoke rose from the camp as shelling set buildings on fire.A mid-morning lull was shattered shortly after noon by more fierce army bombardment.A Palestinian source had said of the pause: “It could be the calm before the storm.”The lull allowed relief workers to evacuate a wounded civilian from the camp, witnesses said.The shelling since Friday has devastated large parts of the camp, bringing down buildings used by the gunmen to fire at the troops but also destroying many civilian homes.”There is no square metre that has not been hit by a shell,” one camp resident told Reuters by telephone earlier.”We can’t leave the building we are in, let alone the street, to find out the full extent of the devastation.”Most of Nahr al-Bared’s nearly 40 000 population had fled to other refugee camps in the past two weeks due to increasingly desperate humanitarian conditions.A soldier was killed in overnight fighting and two wounded soldiers died, security sources said, raising to nine the number of soldiers killed since Friday.Palestinian sources said a militant commander, Naim Ghali aka Abu Riyadh, was killed by an army sniper on Saturday.More than 16 people – militants and civilians – have died in the camp.Fatah al-Islam said it has lost three fighters.Nampa-ReutersBut the militants, who have vowed to fight to the death, were putting up stiff resistance despite three days of near constant pounding from army tanks, artillery and gunships.Explosions rocked the camp as the crackle of machinegun fire echoed.Plumes of smoke rose from the camp as shelling set buildings on fire.A mid-morning lull was shattered shortly after noon by more fierce army bombardment.A Palestinian source had said of the pause: “It could be the calm before the storm.”The lull allowed relief workers to evacuate a wounded civilian from the camp, witnesses said.The shelling since Friday has devastated large parts of the camp, bringing down buildings used by the gunmen to fire at the troops but also destroying many civilian homes.”There is no square metre that has not been hit by a shell,” one camp resident told Reuters by telephone earlier.”We can’t leave the building we are in, let alone the street, to find out the full extent of the devastation.”Most of Nahr al-Bared’s nearly 40 000 population had fled to other refugee camps in the past two weeks due to increasingly desperate humanitarian conditions.A soldier was killed in overnight fighting and two wounded soldiers died, security sources said, raising to nine the number of soldiers killed since Friday.Palestinian sources said a militant commander, Naim Ghali aka Abu Riyadh, was killed by an army sniper on Saturday.More than 16 people – militants and civilians – have died in the camp.Fatah al-Islam said it has lost three fighters.Nampa-Reuters