Lebanon Confronts A Fierce Adversary
22 May Washington Post - Lebanon Confronts A Fierce Adversary by Ellen Knickmeyer.
Quote:
A little-known Islamic militant group based in a Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon battled government troops Monday in some of the country's fiercest fighting since the civil war ended in 1990, surprising the Lebanese military with the scope of the group's weaponry and financing.
Tank and artillery fire pounded blocks of the Nahr al-Bared camp, creating towers of black smoke, as the second day of fighting pushed the death toll among soldiers and militants to at least 50. Palestinian officials told news agencies that nine civilians had been killed inside the camp Monday, but there was no word of Sunday's civilian casualties...
Lebanese Army and Islamists Battle for 2nd Day
22 May NY Times - Lebanese Army and Islamists Battle for 2nd Day by Hassan Fattah.
Quote:
Lebanese tanks and artillery pounded a Palestinian refugee camp in this northern Lebanese city for the second straight day on Monday, battling members of a radical Islamist group and raising concerns for thousands trapped inside.
Government officials said at least 60 people had been killed — 30 soldiers, 15 militants and 15 civilians — in the fighting that began when a police raid on bank robbers early Sunday escalated into one of Lebanon’s most significant security crises since the end of the civil war in 1990.
The militant group, Fatah al Islam, which is thought to have links to Al Qaeda, fired antiaircraft guns and mortars and had night vision goggles and other sophisticated equipment. The Lebanese Army does not have such gear.
Lebanese television stations reported that among the dead militants were men from Bangladesh, Yemen and other Arab countries...
U.N. Council Backs Tribunal For Lebanon
31 May Washington Post - U.N. Council Backs Tribunal For Lebanon by Colum Lynch and Ellen Knickmeyer.
Quote:
A sharply divided U.N. Security Council voted Wednesday to create an international criminal tribunal to prosecute the masterminds of the February 2005 suicide bombing that killed former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq al-Hariri and 22 others.
The vote will lead to the creation of the first U.N.-backed criminal tribunal in the Middle East, raising expectations that Hariri's killers will be held accountable. But that has stoked fears among Lebanese authorities and some council members that supporters of Syria -- which has been linked to the assassination -- will plunge Lebanon's fledgling democracy into a bloody new round of internal strife...
5 U.N. Peacekeepers Killed in Lebanon
25 June NY Times - 5 U.N. Peacekeepers Killed in Lebanon by Nada Bakri.
Quote:
A car bombing killed five United Nations peacekeepers in southern Lebanon on Sunday, opening another potentially disastrous fault line in a country held hostage to violence and political deadlock.
No one claimed responsibility for the attack on the peacekeepers, who were deployed along the border with Israel after last summer’s war with Hezbollah. But suspicion immediately fell on militant Islamists, who are fighting the Lebanese Army in the country’s north. The United Nations force, Unifil, has been on alert for weeks because of that fight and several bombings that are believed to be related to it...
Chaotic Lebanon Risks Becoming Militant Haven
7 July NY Times - Chaotic Lebanon Risks Becoming Militant Haven by Souad Mekhennet, Michael Moss and Michael Slackman.
Quote:
... One year ago, this country found itself in the middle of a war between Israel and the Lebanese militia Hezbollah after Hezbollah fighters crossed the border and seized two Israeli soldiers. Although the war’s catastrophic damage drew Lebanese together, they quickly turned on one another politically. Killings, bombings and political protests have become routine.
Political forces find themselves stalemated, with no one firmly in charge. Neighborhoods of rubble from last year’s war remain uncleared, and politicians on each side accuse those on the other of blocking reconstruction to prevent them from getting credit.
Parliament has to select a new president in September, but with the governing coalition and the opposition hostile to each other, that could set off an unraveling of what remains of the system of governance.
“If you are in a hole, at least stop digging,” said Ali Hamdan, foreign affairs adviser to Nabih Berri, speaker of Parliament, leader of the Shiite Amal movement and a close ally of Hezbollah. “Unfortunately, the Lebanese keep digging.”...
UNIFIL review by Israeli think tank
I like 'The Intelligence & Terrorism Information Center' www.terrorism-info.org.il and receive their newsletters. They recently featured a lengthy review of UNIFIL and the security situation in Southern Lebanon. Has some nice photos too, some maps are a little confusing.
Have a peek: http://www.terrorism-info.org.il/mal...n1701_0807.htm
davidbfpo
In Lebanon, soldiers win new respect
Quote:
Bibnine, Lebanon - Mustafa Borghol stares solemnly out from one of dozens of "martyr" portraits stuck to walls in this village in northern Lebanon. The 24-year-old Lebanese Special Forces soldier is the 10th resident of Bibnine to die in three months of bitter fighting between the Lebanese Army and the Al Qaeda-inspired militants of Fatah al-Islam in the Nahr al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp, just three miles from here.
"This village used to be famous for fishing and carpentry," says Mohammed Borghol, Mustafa's father, while sitting in his butcher shop. "Now it is famous for its martyrs, and we are very proud of them."
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0828/p06s02-wome.html
Good to see increased esteem for a national institution there.