Lebanon violence spreads to second camp
Lebanese troops have been shelling militant positions
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Sunday, 03, Jun 2007 06:12
Clashes between Lebanese troops and suspected Islamic militants have spread to a second camp near the city of Sidon.
The Ain al-Hilweh camp is said to be populated with Jund al-Sham fighters and two people, including one Lebanese soldier, have been hurt in the violence.
Lebanese troops have also been shelling militant positions in the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp in Tripoli as the military continues its offensive.
Strikes made against the Fatah al-Islam group have now entered their third consecutive day and more than 100 civilians, militants and soldiers have died in two weeks of fighting.
After a relatively quiet night, shelling resumed against Islamic militant positions who have said they will not give in to the military bombardment.
Michel Faraoun, the Lebanese minister for parliamentary affairs, told the BBC that the government had given the military the "green light" to deal with the militants hidden among the camp's concrete maze of alleys and buildings.
Lebanese soldiers are forbidden from entering under the terms of a 38-year-old agreement and officials say this is still the case, although the world's media are being kept away from the refugee camp.
The situation marks the worst internal violence experienced within Lebanon since the bloody 15-year civil war that ended in 1990.
Nahr al-Bared, north of Tripoli, has been home to 40,000 Palestinian refugees since 1948 in the first days of a nascent Israel.
However the UN says that more than half of its residents have fled to nearby camps in a bid to escape the violence.
The Lebanese army engaged Fatah al-Islam militants two weeks ago as part of wider security operations, but has so far been unable to dislodge them from Nahr al-Bared.
According to military sources, militants are taking human shields and rejecting calls to surrender.
Lawmakers in Beirut accuse Syria of being in league with Fatah al-Islam, charges Damascus vehemently denies.