NAHR Al-BARED, Lebanon, 18 June 2007 — Lebanese troops and Al-Qaeda-inspired militants fought sporadically yesterday at a Palestinian refugee camp in north Lebanon, the scene of often ferocious battles that have entered their fifth week.
Witnesses said the army advanced near the northeastern entrance of the Nahr Al-Bared camp yesterday and was trying to control a school complex on the camp’s coastal side but was facing resistance by the Fatah Al-Islam militants.
Heavy overnight clashes had erupted between the army and militants and intermittent shelling flared especially on the northern and eastern sides of the Nahr Al-Bared camp.
“Army units are continuing to exert their control ... and are cleansing buildings from boobytraps and tightening their grip (on the camp) until this abnormal phenomenon is terminated,” a military source said.
Meanwhile, the pro-Syrian Hezbollah yesterday accused the government of dragging Lebanon into further crisis by insisting on by-elections to replace two slain MPs despite opposition from the Damascus-backed president. “There is a party which... threatens the country with a deep political division that will come about if this party continues to monopolize power,” Hezbollah MP Hassan Fadlallah warned.
The Western-backed government decided on Saturday to hold by-elections on Aug. 5 to replace two assassinated anti-Syrian parliamentarians, despite staunch opposition from President Emile Lahoud.
Industry minister Pierre Gemayel was shot dead in November and MP Walid Eido was killed on Wednesday in a car bombing in Beirut. Members of the anti-Syrian majority blamed Syria for both murders, a charge Damascus denies.
“When the assassination of our colleague MP Walid Eido took place, we told them (the majority) let us not just condemn it... let us adopt serious steps” to resolve the Lebanese crisis peacefully, Fadlallah said at a funeral in south Lebanon. “But how did they respond? With unconstitutional acts, with threats to carry out unilateral steps. There is a president of the republic who has prerogatives, whether you agree with him or not, whether you are friends with him or not. But they are bypassing and violating his prerogatives,” he added.
“When were we against elections? When our colleague MP Gibran Tueni was assassinated (in December 2005) we had by-elections, and we had no problems with that because there was a legitimate and constitutional government,” he said.
Another opposition group, the Free Patriotic Movement of Michel Aoun, said yesterday it did not oppose by-elections — as long as Lahoud signs the decree. “We are all for by-elections, but we want to protect the constitution and we do not accept that any harm be done to the prerogatives of the president,” spokesman Antoine Nasrallah said.
