Lebanese troops inched toward Islamic militant strongholds in a Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon as mediators hinted at a possible ceasefire deal that would include the disarmament of the al-Qaeda-inspired militants.
Two Lebanese soldiers became the latest victims of the battle around the Nahr el-Bared refugee camp near the city of Tripoli that began on May 20, security officials said on condition of anonymity.
As the battle with the Fatah Islam group continued, mediators hinted at a possible ceasefire deal with the militants.
PHOTO: AFP
According to a Palestinian Muslim cleric who has been acting as mediator, the deal would include a ceasefire, to be followed by the militants' disarmament.
The cleric, Sheik Mohammed Haj, said he had a "very positive" meeting with Fatah Islam leaders inside the camp on Monday but would not give details before a meeting with the army command scheduled for yesterday.
He told the official Lebanese news agency that the militants agreed to conditions of his Palestinian Scholars Association.
The cleric did not offer more details, but the private New TV station said the conditions also include return of refugees, takeover of the camp by other Palestinian factions and Fatah Islam's dissolution.
Meanwhile, Abu Imad Rifai, a representative of the Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad, told Al-Manar television that the progress was made after Fatah Islam "opened the doors for a solution" and accepted to "dissolve."
The army had said its decision to eliminate Fatah Islam was "final and irreversible," and the militants had pledged to fight to death rather than comply with the army's request that they surrender.
The fighting in Nahr el-Bared comes amid a standoff between Prime Minister Fuad Saniora's Western-backed government and the opposition led by the militant Hezbollah group.
Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa began a three-day visit to Beirut on Tuesday to hold meetings with rival politicians in an attempt to help find solutions to the political crisis.
"Negative winds are blowing in every direction. The Lebanese, and we all, must help to protect Lebanon from these dangerous winds," Moussa said upon arrival at Beirut's airport.
In Tuesday's fighting at Nahr el-Bared, a barrage of six shells at a time was heard as the army pounded the camp. Black and white plumes of smoke were seen rising from inside the camp.
State-run National News Agency (NNA) said three Lebanese helicopters fired 12 rockets at suspected Fatah Islam positions in the camp.
Meanwhile, Lebanon's top military magistrate Rashid Mezher issued formal arrest warrants for nine suspected militants who were detained earlier this month in the town of Bar Elias in the eastern Bekaa Valley, NNA said. The agency did not say to which group the nine belonged but said they comprise six Lebanese, two Syrians and a Saudi.
Tuesday's deaths of two soldiers brought the army's fatalities to 74 since fighting first erupted, when police raiding suspects in a bank robbery clashed with Fatah Islam in a Tripoli neighborhood.
At least 60 militants were killed in the early days of the fighting, with officials saying many more died later on. The militants have given a much lower death toll, but contact with them recently has not been possible. At least 20 civilians were reported killed.
The army has made steady gains on the ground in recent days. On occasion, it leveled top floors of buildings to root out militant snipers, and engaged in door-to-door combat to try to break the stubborn resistance of the militants who operate from behind fortified positions and target the military with rockets and booby traps.
The battle to drive the Islamic militants out has led to significant damage to parts of the camp, once home to some 30,000 Palestinian refugees. Only about 5,000 remain inside, after most residents fled to the nearby Beddawi refugee camp.
An amateur video obtained on Tuesday showed major destruction in largely deserted residential neighborhoods.
Debris from collapsed walls and balconies littered the narrow alleys, covered with ripped electricity wires. Shells and shrapnel holes peppered some buildings. A burnt car and a parked pickup truck with a collapsed wall resting on it lay on one deserted street.
The video, taken at different periods between May 27 and June 10, showed very few residents. Six men were seen gathering around a hose to fill up cans with water. In one house, a family was sitting on the floor for a meal.
Polish presidential candidates offered different visions of Poland and its relations with Ukraine in a televised debate ahead of next week’s run-off, which remains on a knife-edge. During a head-to-head debate lasting two hours, centrist Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski, from Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s governing pro-European coalition, faced the Eurosceptic historian Karol Nawrocki, backed by the right-wing populist Law and Justice party (PiS). The two candidates, who qualified for the second round after coming in the top two places in the first vote on Sunday last week, clashed over Poland’s relations with Ukraine, EU policy and the track records of their
UNSCHEDULED VISIT: ‘It’s a very bulky new neighbor, but it will soon go away,’ said Johan Helberg of the 135m container ship that run aground near his house A man in Norway awoke early on Thursday to discover a huge container ship had run aground a stone’s throw from his fjord-side house — and he had slept through the commotion. For an as-yet unknown reason, the 135m NCL Salten sailed up onto shore just meters from Johan Helberg’s house in a fjord near Trondheim in central Norway. Helberg only discovered the unexpected visitor when a panicked neighbor who had rung his doorbell repeatedly to no avail gave up and called him on the phone. “The doorbell rang at a time of day when I don’t like to open,” Helberg told television
‘A THREAT’: Guyanese President Irfan Ali called on Venezuela to follow international court rulings over the region, whose border Guyana says was ratified back in 1899 Misael Zapara said he would vote in Venezuela’s first elections yesterday for the territory of Essequibo, despite living more than 100km away from the oil-rich Guyana-administered region. Both countries lay claim to Essequibo, which makes up two-thirds of Guyana’s territory and is home to 125,000 of its 800,000 citizens. Guyana has administered the region for decades. The centuries-old dispute has intensified since ExxonMobil discovered massive offshore oil deposits a decade ago, giving Guyana the largest crude oil reserves per capita in the world. Venezuela would elect a governor, eight National Assembly deputies and regional councilors in a newly created constituency for the 160,000
North Korea has detained another official over last week’s failed launch of a warship, which damaged the naval destroyer, state media reported yesterday. Pyongyang announced “a serious accident” at Wednesday last week’s launch ceremony, which crushed sections of the bottom of the new destroyer. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un called the mishap a “criminal act caused by absolute carelessness.” Ri Hyong-son, vice department director of the Munitions Industry Department of the Party Central Committee, was summoned and detained on Sunday, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported. He was “greatly responsible for the occurrence of the serious accident,” it said. Ri is the fourth person
RSS