NAHR Al-BARED, Lebanon, 23 May 2007 — A fragile truce allowed aid trucks to enter a battered Palestinian refugee camp in north Lebanon yesterday after three days of fierce battles between Lebanese Army troops and militants.
Civilians took advantage of the lull to flee, flying white flags from their car windows, up to 10 people crammed in some vehicles. This correspondent saw two wounded persons lying in pools of blood in the street.
A number of aid workers were forced to leave when shells exploded near their convoy, killing at least two youths as they tried to collect supplies, witnesses said. UN aid trucks withdrew amid the blasts and gunfire.
Residents begged journalists to evacuate them. A man trying to carry a wounded woman to safety had to leave her in the street when bullets began flying.
At least 22 militants, 32 soldiers and 27 civilians have been killed since the army and the militant group Fatah Al-Islam began fighting on Sunday, making it Lebanon’s worst internal violence since the 1975-1990 civil war.
Fifty-five soldiers have also been wounded.
Heavy fighting at Nahr Al-Bared camp, home to 40,000 people near the northern city of Tripoli, raged from dawn until the afternoon. Fatah Al-Islam, an Al-Qaeda-inspired Sunni group, has been based in the camp since last year.
Clashes died down after Fatah Al-Islam said it would cease fire if the army did the same. The United Nations used the lull to try to deliver food, water and medical supplies to the camp.
Shocked camp residents emerged from their homes to see the destruction. Shell fire had torn huge holes in buildings. Gunmen roamed the rubble-strewn street. No casualty toll was available.
“What the hell were they (the army) doing? Did they think they were fighting the Israeli Army?” resident Mahmoud Tayyar asked.
Fatah Al-Islam has little local support, but the firepower the army has turned on the camp has begun to anger Palestinians. “We have seen many wars but never seen bombardment in this way. Entire areas have been destroyed,” Jamal Laila, 40, said by telephone earlier. “Children have no milk, water or bread. For the sake of 10, 20 or 30 individuals, an entire camp is being massacred,” he said, weeping over the phone.
UN aid trucks had waited for hours to enter the camp, on the coast just outside Tripoli, Lebanon’s second biggest city. A Fatah Al-Islam militant blew himself up in a building in Tripoli.
EU foreign policy envoy Javier Solana, who was in Beirut for talks with leaders on both sides of the political divide, appealed for a halt to the bloodshed. “I am hoping very much for calm,” he told a news conference after meeting Siniora.
