TRIPOLI, Lebanon: Many families from the Palestinian refugee camp that has been caught in the battle between Islamic militants and the Lebanese Army have fled the camp, but thousands of people remain trapped inside, a United Nations official said Sunday.
The Nahr al-Bared camp, near the outskirts of this northern Lebanese port city, was calm Sunday after sporadic gunfire overnight between the army and Fatah al-Islam militants in the camp punctured a four-day-old truce.
Hoda al-Turk, a spokeswoman for the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees, said that more than 5,000 refugee families - or about 25,000 refugees - had left the camp, which was home to about 31,000 people, since the fighting began a week ago.
Most of those families have fled to the nearby Beddawi refugee camp, while others are staying in Tripoli and other villages, she said.
In a videotape obtained Saturday by AP Television News in Tripoli, the head of Fatah al-Islam, Shaker Youssef al-Absi, said his fighters would not surrender but would kill those who stormed the camp.
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"We wish to die for the sake of God," he said. "Sunni people are the spearhead against the Zionist Americans." He is suspected of having ties to Al Qaeda.
The military has placed more troops around the camp, which is already ringed by hundreds of soldiers, backed by artillery and tanks. Fatah al-Islam has claimed to have more than 500 fighters with automatic weapons, mortars and rocket-propelled grenades inside the camp.
Three U.S. transport planes carrying military aid arrived Saturday from Kuwait. So far, eight military transport planes have landed at Beirut airport since Thursday, including four from the U.S. Air Force, two from the United Arab Emirates and two from Jordan. Media reports said the planes carried ammunition, body armor, helmets and night-vision equipment.
U.S. arms are a sensitive issue in a country deeply divided between supporters of Prime Minister Fuad Saniora's government and an opposition backed by Iran and Syria. The Shiite Hezbollah-led opposition accuses Saniora of having ties that are too close to Washington.
The Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah criticized the American aid, saying Friday that Lebanon was being dragged into a U.S. war against Al Qaeda that would destabilize the country. He warned the military against attacking Nahr al-Bared.
Saniora defended the U.S. aid, telling the Arabic service of the British Broadcasting Corporation that the aid was not a "crime" and that the weapons had been offered by different countries a year ago.
Palestinian factions, meanwhile, have been scrambling to find a negotiated solution to end the siege and avert what many fear would be a bloody battle between the Lebanese Army and Fatah al-Islam.
An all-out army assault could prompt violence elsewhere in Lebanon, host country to about 400,000 Palestinian refugees who mostly live in camps that are rife with armed groups.
At least 20 civilians and 30 soldiers have been killed in the fighting. The Lebanese military says 60 Fatah al-Islam fighters were killed, though the group put the toll at 10.
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