Lebanese Army Pounds Militant Palestinian Fatah al-Islam

The fighting has begun again in earnest this week as the Lebanese military have cornered an al-Qaeda supported militant group in the back streets of Tripoli. The real victims here are the innocent families that are virtually "taken hostage" in an effort to shield the militant group. The bloodshed continues and is expected to continue into the week. Once again we are witnessing civil warfare and once again we are wondering what the neighboring countries are doing about it. We have not heard much from the U.N. Security Council. But then again they are about as useful as an party of geriatric eunuchs in an all night orgy.

(Tripoli) -- Lebanon's soldiers clashed for a second day with Islamist militants in the northern city of Tripoli as Lebanese officials accused neighboring Syria of sparking the bloodshed that may have killed 70 people.

Gunfights yesterday killed about 40 people, including 27 soldiers, the state-owned National News Agency said. As well as the soldiers and militants, another 30 people may have died yesterday and today inside the Nahr el-Bared camp, which houses about 30,000 Palestinian refugees and is at the center of the fighting, the agency reported.

In Beirut, six people were wounded by a bomb that rocked the Verdun district in the mainly Muslim western sector of the city, Agence France-Presse reported. The bomb was placed under a car outside a Russian cultural center, AFP said, citing police.

Television footage from Tripoli on Arab and international channels showed smoke rising above that predominantly Sunni Muslim city, as the army aimed shells at militants from the Palestinian group Fatah al-Islam. A two-hour cease-fire was brokered today by the International Committee of the Red Cross to evacuate the wounded and remove bodies, the state news agency said.

Syrian Involvement Suspected

While all major political parties in Lebanon, including those allied with Syria, said they supported the Lebanese army and condemned Fatah al-Islam, the violence may be an attempt by Syria to keep pressure on the Lebanese government, analysts and Lebanese government members said.

``This is another attempt to blackmail Lebanon,'' Marwan Hamadeh, Lebanese minister of telecommunications, said in a telephone interview today, accusing Syria of instigating and supporting the group. ``Lebanon will not submit to this kind of pressure.''

Syria's ambassador to the United Nations said his government had nothing to do with the violence and that Fatah al-Islam's leaders are members of al-Qaeda who had been jailed in Syria for terrorist activities. More...

Tags: palestine, middle east, world news, al-qaeda, zz