A new firefight erupted on Monday at a Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon where the army is besieging an Islamist militia, amid efforts to end the crisis. The brief but violent firefight flared early Monday in Nahr al-Bared after militants tried to attack a Lebanese army position outside the camp, state-run National News Agency said.
It said several Fatah al-Islam fighters were injured in the clash which broke out at 7:30 a.m.
Hundreds of heavily armed soldiers, backed by tanks, armoured personnel carriers and machinegun-mounted jeeps, surround the north Lebanon Nahr al-Bared camp where several thousand civilians remain trapped without running water, with little food and no electricity.
As the siege entered its eighth day, political tensions were rising because of divisions over how to handle the crisis. The army has kept Nahr al-Bared under siege since Fatah al-Islam attacked army targets on May 20.
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. A government source told AFP the authorities have given Palestinian groups in Lebanon "the chance to resolve the problems with Fatah al-Islam without any time restraints."
Lebanon is seeking the handover of fighters from Fatah al-Islam to stand trial over attacks against its armed forces, another source said. "The army is determined to arrest the killers and bring them to justice," army commander Brigadier General Michel Sleiman said on Sunday.
On their part, Palestinian factions pressed for a negotiated solution. The four-point plan presented by the Palestinian factions to the Lebanese government aimed at a peaceful resolution to the camp crisis, Abu Imad Rifai, a representative of Islamic Jihad, told the Associated Press on Sunday.
