NAHR Al-BARED, Lebanon, 11 June 2007 — Lebanese soldiers and Islamist militants entrenched in a refugee camp fought gunbattles yesterday after at least 15 people were killed in an operation to storm rebel positions.
As the showdown entered its fourth week, an army officer at the scene said the high casualties were suffered in clashes on Saturday that were often at close quarters and accompanied by heavy artillery fire from the military.
The army, which has encircled Nahr Al-Bared, tried to push into the Palestinian refugee camp in north Lebanon and overrun positions held by Fatah Al-Islam militants, which has snipers posted on rooftops.
Amid sporadic fighting yesterday, the army’s spokesman said soldiers had advanced 50 meters inside the camp and were clearing out booby-traps in four buildings from where the Islamists had been driven out.
“Nine soldiers in total were killed in the clashes as the army advanced on Fatah Al-Islam positions inside the camp,” the spokesman said, updating an earlier toll.
Six troops were killed Saturday and the other three died of their injuries yesterday, he said. Almost 40 other soldiers were wounded.
Shahine Shahine, spokesman for Fatah Al-Islam, said by telephone from inside the battered refugee camp that four of its fighters were killed and another six wounded. The shelling on Saturday was cover for a ground assault but the attack was repulsed, he said.
Two Palestinian civilians, whose bodies were evacuated by the Red Crescent yesterday, also died in the shelling of the mostly deserted camp, rescue workers said. “The soldiers were victims of booby-trapped bomb blasts and grenades thrown at them by Fatah Al-Islam,” as they tried to storm the militia’s positions on the northeastern outskirts of the camp, said an army commander.
The soldiers were “fighting from high-rise to high-rise but encountering fierce resistance from the extremists who have booby-trapped the buildings,” he said.
The known death toll since the fighting broke out May 20 in Nahr Al-Bared and the nearby port city of Tripoli has now risen to 121, including 56 Lebanese Army soldiers and 50 Islamists.
Lebanese authorities say the fighting was sparked by raids on Fatah Al-Islam hide-outs in Tripoli following a bank robbery, after which the militants attacked army posts.
