Since early Friday morning, the Lebanese Army has been pounding Nahr Al-Bared camp for Palestinian refugees in northern Lebanon. This is the heaviest artillery bombardment yet in the camp.
The heavy Lebanese Army shelling of Nahr Al-Bared during the first three days of the crisis was called “indiscriminate”. Today’s action breaks a ten-day lull, that was supposed to leave way for “negotiations”.
By Friday evening, Associated Press reported that the Lebanese Army had broken through and had entered the perimeter zones of the refugee camp: “Lebanese tanks and armored vehicles battled their way into the outer neighborhoods of a Palestinian refugee camp Friday in some of the heaviest fighting since violence broke out between the military and al-Qaida-inspired militants nearly two weeks ago”…
See full breaking news report here.
On Friday evening in Lebanon, the Lebanese Army called on those fighting within the camp “to surrender to justice, and asserts its determination to continue to track them down until this is achieved”. In a statement, the army called on “our Palestinian brothers not to provide safe haven to these criminals, and expel them from among the innocent civilians,” it said. It also stated that “There were many casualties among their [the militants’] ranks, and some of them have fled while others have hidden among civilians [in the camp] in order to use them as human shields”.
Al-Jazeera says there are at least 8,000 Palestinian civilians still trapped in the camp — many elderly or disabled — who are unable to flee. Al-Jazeera also reports that Palestinian refugees in Lebanon see this as a larger move against their presence in that country. CNN says there may be 10,000 civilians trapped.
News reports say that the Lebanese Army claimed that their moves on Friday are in response to an attack on one of their positions this morning by Fatah Al-Islam.
Continue reading A "Final Solution" underway for Nahr Al-Bared camp in Lebanon?