A new firefight erupted yesterday at a battered refugee camp in Lebanon where the army is besieging an Islamist militia, amid efforts to end the bloodiest internal clashes for decades.
The rattle of gunfire reverberated around the Nahr al-Bared camp before troops surrounding the shantytown fired four shells toward the northern entrance where the Islamists are holed up.
Smoke was seen billowing from the area, the epicenter of the fighting between the army and fighters from the Sunni Muslim extremist group Fatah al-Islam, but calm later returned.
Hundreds of heavily armed soldiers, backed by tanks, armored personnel carriers and machinegun-mounted jeeps, surround the north Lebanon camp where several thousand civilians remain trapped without running water, with little food and no electricity.
As the siege entered its eighth day, political tensions were rising because of divisions over how to handle the crisis and a UN vote this week on the creation of a court to try suspects in the murder of former prime minister Rafiq Hariri.
Hariri was killed in a massive Beirut bomb blast in 2005 widely blamed on former powerbroker Syria, which was later forced to end nearly 30 years of military and political domination of Lebanon.
Lebanon's Western-backed ruling majority has accused Syria of stirring the troubles in the north and blamed it for a string of recent bomb attacks in a bid to block the tribunal.
The army has 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 the camp, while Lebanese 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 time restraints."
Under a longstanding arrangement, the 12 impoverished refugee camps in Lebanon remain outside the control of the government and in the hands of armed Palestinian factions -- despite a UN resolution calling for the disarmament of all militias.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese