Asia-Pacific

Dozens killed in Lebanese fighting

(AP)
Updated: 2007-05-21 20:47

TRIPOLI, Lebanon - Lebanese troops tightened a siege of a Palestinian refugee camp Monday where a shadowy group suspected of ties to al-Qaida was holed up, pounding the camp with artillery a day after the worst eruption of violence since the end of the country's 1975-90 civil war.

Lebanese army and police inspect the scene a day after an explosion hit the eastern area of Achrafieh in Beirut, Lebanon Monday, May 21, 2007. An explosion across the street from a busy shopping mall killed a 63-year-old woman and injured 12 other people in Beirut late Sunday in the Christian sector of the Lebanese capital, police said. [AP]

Lebanese officials said one of the men killed in Sunday's fighting was a suspect in a failed German train bombing - a new sign that the camp had become a refuge for militants planning attacks outside of Lebanon. In the past, others in the camp have said they were aiming to send trained fighters into Iraq.

Saddam El-Hajdib was the fourth-highest ranking official in the Fatah Islam group, an official said Monday, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media. El-Hajdib had been on trial in absentia in Lebanon in connection with the failed German plot.

The death toll remained uncertain as hundreds of Lebanese army troops, backed by tanks and armored carriers, surrounded the Nahr el-Bared refugee camp on Tripoli's outskirts early Monday. M-48 battle tanks unleashed their cannon fire on the camp, sending orange flames followed by white plumes of smoke. The militants fired mortars toward the troops at daybreak Monday.

At least 27 soldiers and 20 militants had been killed, Lebanese security officials said Monday, but they did not know how many civilians had been killed inside the camp because it is off-limits to their authority.