Solution sought in Lebanon camp siege

[Eugene]

Source: Associated Press

Solution sought in Lebanon camp siege

By BASSEM MROUE, Associated Press Writer
32 minutes ago

TRIPOLI, Lebanon - Palestinian mediators pressed for a
negotiated solution to a week-long siege of a Palestinian
refugee camp Sunday, with the Lebanese government
demanding the surrender of Islamic militants inside but
reluctant to rush into an all-out assault.

The leader of the Fatah Islam militants said his fighters
would not surrender.

-snip-

The Lebanese government was in a bind over its campaign
to uproot Fatah Islam militants barricaded inside the Nahr
el-Bared refugee camp. An attack to crush the fighters
could be bloody — for both troops and the thousands of
Palestinian civilians still trapped inside.

-snip-

Palestinian factions have presented the government with a
four-point plan aimed at a peaceful resolution to the camp
standoff, Abu Imad Rifai, a representative of the Palestinian
militant group Islamic Jihad, told the Associated Press on
Sunday.

-snip-

However, the plan falls short of Lebanese government
demands for the handover of the militants.

-snip-

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070527/ap_on_re_mi_ea/lebanon_violence_184

[maddezmom]

1. Gunfight breaks lull at besieged Lebanon camp

NAHR AL-BARED, Lebanon (AFP) - A new firefight erupted on Monday at a battered refugee camp in Lebanon where the army is besieging an Islamist militia, amid efforts to end the bloodiest internal clashes for decades.

The rattle of gunfire reverberated around the Nahr al-Bared camp before troops surrounding the coastal shantytown fired four shells toward the northern entrance where the Islamists are holed up, an AFP correspondent said.

Smoke was seen billowing from the area, the epicentre of the fighting between the army and fighters from the Sunni Muslim extremist group Fatah al-Islam, but calm later returned.

Hundreds of heavily armed soldiers, backed by tanks, armoured personnel carriers and machinegun-mounted jeeps, surround the north Lebanon camp where several thousand civilians remain trapped without running water, with little food and no electricity.

more:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070528/wl_afp/lebanonunrest_070528093119;_ylt=Ate.bfJmdmwCRwYnZ3CRHciaOrgF