HALWA, Lebanon, 18 May 2006 — Clashes broke out yesterday between the Lebanese Army and pro-Syrian Palestinian fighters near the Syrian border, wounding two people, and a soldier was detained for several hours, police said. The soldier, Khaled Ibrahim, was snatched and then freed by fighters of the Damascus-based group Fatah-Intifada, which is founded by a Palestinian militant known as Abu Mussa, they told AFP.
Abu Fadi Hammad, the Lebanon representative of Abu Mussa’s group, told AFP one fighter was wounded in the clashes and that the detained soldier had been handed back to the army.
A senior army official said a soldier was also wounded in the fighting in Wadi Al-Asswad village of eastern Lebanon as troops and militants traded fire with automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades.
The army, in a statement, said troops retaliated after coming under fire from “Palestinian elements” during a patrol near “a newly set up position.” Soldiers later dismantled the post and confiscated equipment, it said. The statement did not mention the kidnapping but said one soldier was “gravely wounded” in the clashes.
On Tuesday, Lebanese leaders held a new round of reconciliation talks which reached an agreement in April on a number of contentious issues, including the dismantling of Palestinian bases in Lebanon within six months.
