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.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not