TRIPOLI, Lebanon – Lebanese troops blasted a Palestinian refugee camp with artillery and tank fire again Monday, seeking to destroy a militant group. The barrage smashed buildings and sent plumes of black smoke towering over the crowded camp on the Mediterranean.
The fierce, two-day battle has killed nearly 50 combatants and an unknown number of civilians.
Refugees in the Nahr el-Bared camp, on the outskirts of the port city of Tripoli, hid in their homes as fighting raged, and Palestinian officials in the camp said nine civilians were killed Monday; reports from the camp could not be confirmed.
All day, automatic gunfire and explosions rocked the camp, which is more like a small city, with more than 31,000 people.
“There are many wounded. We’re under siege. There is a shortage of bread, medicine and electricity. There are children under the rubble” of damaged buildings, Sana Abu Faraj, a resident of the camp, told Al-Jazeera television by cell phone.
Hundreds of Lebanese troops surrounded Nahr el-Bared, staying outside in accordance with a nearly 40-year-old agreement with the Palestinians. The troops pounded the camp with artillery and tank fire, and militants responded with gunfire and mortar rounds.
Fighting quieted after nightfall amid attempts by other Palestinian factions to broker a cease-fire.
Lebanese security officials accuse Syria of backing Fatah Islam as a tool to disrupt the country. “They are not al-Qaida. This is imitation al-Qaida, a ‘Made in Syria’ one,” a national police commander, Maj. Gen. Ashraf Rifi, said Monday, referring to Fatah Islam.
Fatah Islam set up its headquarters in the refugee camp in the fall after Syria released its leader from jail.
The fighting broke out Sunday when police raided militants’ hideouts in the city, searching for bank robbers. Fighters burst out of the nearby refugee camp, ambushing army troops called in to help. The army then laid siege to the camp with tanks and artillery.
The U.S. State Department defended the Lebanese army, saying it was working in a “legitimate manner” against “provocations by violent extremists” operating in the camp.
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