Fighting flares again at besieged Lebanon camp

NAHR AL BARED, Lebanon - Fighting between the Lebanese army and Islamist militants flared again as their deadly standoff entered its10th day Wednesday and relief workers tried to get aid to stranded civilians.

Adding to the tensions in Lebanon, the UN Security Council was set to vote on a court to try suspects in the 2005 murder of ex-premier Rafiq Hariri, an issue that has led to the paralysis of the Western-backed government.

The two sides traded fire sporadically through the night, according to an AFP correspondent at the Nahr Al Bared camp, where troops have laid siege to the Fatah Al Islam group since its fighters attacked army targets on May 20.

There were no immediate reports of casualties. On Tuesday, a soldier was killed in a firefight, bringing to 79 the death toll from the bloodiest internal unrest in Lebanon since the 1975-90 civil war.

Sporadic fighting has erupted almost daily at the impoverished northern shantytown near the Mediterranean coast, although the fierce gunbattles of the early days of the standoff have subsided amid efforts to mediate a peaceful solution.

Fatah Al Islam spokesman Abu Salim Taha said the group was refusing to surrender any of its militants despite demands of the Lebanese government, which has vowed to crush the “terrorist phenomenon.”

A three-member delegation of clerics from the Union of Palestinian Scholars met militants in the camp on Sunday after winning approval from Lebanese authorities, Palestinian factions and Fatah Al Islam to mediate.

“We are still working with the delegation of the Union of Palestinian Scholars in order to find a political solution,” Taha said on Tuesday.

Under a longstanding arrangement, the 12 refugee camps in Lebanon remain outside government control and in the hands of armed Palestinian factions — despite a UN resolution calling for the disarmament of all militias.

The International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC) continued deliveries of supplies on Wednesday to those stranded in the camp without electricity and dwindling supplies.

Trucks piled with water and food were waiting to enter the camp. ICRC officials said eight trucks had on Tuesday delivered food, water and candles.

According to UN estimates, between 3,000 and 8,000 of the 31,000 Palestinian refugees registered at Nahr Al Bared are still inside the camp, while Prime Minister Fuad Siniora said on Sunday that 5,000 remained.

The UN children’s agency UNICEF has called on all sides to protect trapped civilians, including children it said had been through “unspeakable trauma.”

The fighting has jolted a country riven by political and sectarian division and still recovering from last year’s war between Israel and Lebanon’s Shiite militant group Hezbollah.

The ruling majority in Lebanon has accused former powerbroker Syria of backing Fatah Al Islam, a Sunni group inspired by the Al Qaeda network of Osama bin Laden.