Fighting erupts anew at besieged Lebanon refugee camp

NAHR AL-BARED (AFP) - Fighting erupted again on Friday between troops besieging a Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon and Islamist militants holed up inside, as the standoff entered its 13th day.

There were no immediate reports of casualties in the firefight at Nahr al-Bared, located on the Mediterranean coast some 90 kilometres (55 miles) north of the capital Beirut.

On Thursday the army said a soldier was killed by sniper fire, while eight Islamists were killed a day earlier in fierce clashes that also left three soldiers wounded.

The soldier's death brought to 80 -- including 35 soldiers -- the number of people confirmed killed since the fighting first broke out on May 20.

An army spokesman told AFP that militants of the Al-Qaeda-inspired Fatah al-Islam group opened fire at around 7:00 am (0400 GMT) on army positions outside the camp and on the road linking it to the nearby city of Tripoli.

"The army responded with precision fire from tanks and mortars in a legitimate act of defence and in an attempt to spare civilians" inside the camp, the spokesman said.

By mid-morning fighting was continuing at the camp. The military spokesman denied media reports that the army was reinforcing its positions around Nahr al-Bared in preparation for an assault.

An AFP correspondent at the scene said the army was keeping journalists away from entrances to the camp, whose original population of around 31,000 has plunged as people fled the fighting, often under sniper fire from within.

On Thursday night, the army commander, General Michel Suleiman, inspected positions outside the camp.

The Beirut government, pushing for a peaceful end to the standoff, has insisted that the group hand over fighters to stand trial over attacks against its armed forces during the bloodiest internal fighting since the 1975-1990 civil war.

But Fatah al-Islam is adamant that none of its fighters will be surrendered.

"The situation is still complicated and requires more discussions in order to close the gap between the points of views of the two sides," Sheikh Mohammed al-Hajj, a member of a delegation of clerics attempting to mediate for a peaceful solution, told AFP on Thursday.

More than two thirds of Nahr al-Bared's residents have been displaced by the fighting, as relief agencies struggle to deliver aid both to those who have been able to leave and to residents still trapped inside.

On a separate front, members of the mainstream Fatah movement and a different Islamist group exchanged gunfire in another refugee camp, apparently following an attempt by a Fatah member to settle a personal score.

Meanwhile, in Lebanon's largest refugee camp, Ain el-Helweh, shooting erupted between militants of Fatah, the mainstream movement of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, and Islamist group Jund al-Sham, a source in the camp said.

According to the account, a Fatah militant, whose brother had been killed by the Islamists earlier this month, shot at one of them he thought was responsible, without hitting him.

That led to an exchange of small arms fire and grenades that lasted about half an hour at the camp, about 40 kilometres (25 miles) south of Beirut.

The standoff between the army and Fatah al-Islam is set against the backdrop of wider tensions in Lebanon, which is riven by political tensions.

On Wednesday night, the UN Security Council voted to set up an international court to try suspects in the murder of Lebanese ex-premier Rafiq Hariri, which raised fears of more instability in the deeply divided country.

The 2005 assassination and other killings since have been blamed on Lebanon's neighbour and former power Syria, which has vehemently denied any involvement and vowed not to cooperate with the tribunal.

Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora said a trial would allow for "the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth" to be revealed, saying the court is "not directed against anyone and especially not sister Syria."

The tribunal project has been at the core of a long-running political dispute that has paralysed Siniora's government since November, when the opposition, led by the powerful Shiite party Hezbollah, pulled out six cabinet ministers.