Truce Holds At Refugee Camp

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TRIPOLI, Lebanon (AP) – Hundreds of Palestinian Arab civilians trickled out of a besieged refugee camp Wednesday after a truce in the fighting mostly held overnight.

About 15,000 – nearly half the camp’s residents – fled late at night when the lull took hold between Lebanese troops and Islamic militants barricaded in the crowded Nahr el-Bared refugee camp, relief officials said. About 1,000 fled Wednesday morning.

Those fleeing reported bodies littering the camp’s streets and scenes of blasted buildings and destruction. Officials said the bodies of at least 20 civilians have been retrieved from inside.

“It’s very tense,” said Rania Mustafa, 23, holding the hand of a child and carrying a baby in her arms. Other women carrying children were seen stepping over broken glass and garbage and walking around wrecked cars. A loose cow roamed on another street.

But it was unclear how long the truce would hold, and there were fears that allowing civilians out could be a prelude for a major showdown. The Lebanese government has said it is determined to uproot the militant Fatah Islam, and the army has said its troops were trying to target only militant positions.

Fatah Islam, which took up residence in the camp late last year, has vowed to fight a “life or death battle.” On Wednesday, the army reinforced its positions around the camp.

The cease-fire which went into effect Tuesday afternoon didn’t begin to take hold until after sunset. With the guns largely falling silent, thousands of refugees dashed out of the camp after being pinned down since fighting broke out Sunday.

But earlier, a relief convoy came under fire as U.N. workers tried to deliver food and water to residents in Nahr el-Bared, home to 31,000 refugees. A U.N. official said some who approached the convoy seeking supplies were wounded or killed, but he did not have exact figures.

“They (army) are not attacking Fatah Islam. They are attacking people,” said Hussein Wehbe, 23, a refugee who planned to stay inside the camp. The army says its troops are trying to target only militant positions.

John Holmes, the U.N. undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs, called the attack on the U.N. Relief and Works Agency convoy “outrageous and completely unacceptable.”

He warned that no successful steps had yet been taken to ensure humanitarian access to the camps, although his office and UNRWA were appealing for it.

The refugees have largely moved to a nearby Palestinian refugee camp at Beddawi, where U.N. relief officials and local provided shelter, mattresses, food and water.

Twenty-nine soldiers and at least 20 militants had been killed since the battle began Sunday in the heaviest internal fighting in Lebanon since the 1975-90 civil war.

Taleb al-Salhani, a security officer of the UNRWA said Wednesday the bodies of 20 civilians – men, women and children – have been retrieved from the camp. But the total number of civilian casualties remained unknown.

This week’s fighting raises the ominous prospect that parts of Lebanon could become havens for terrorists training to attack the West – similar to lawless regions in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The small country is home to some 215,000 Palestinian refugees who live in a dozen camps, which are rife with armed groups and Islamic extremists including Fatah Islam. Inside Nahr el-Bared, several armed and bearded Fatah Islam men ordered an Associated Press photographer not to take pictures. They spoke classical Arabic, which is different that the dialect spoken by Lebanese and Palestinians.

The military’s attack at the camp also has raised fears the fighting could destabilize Lebanon’s uneasy balance among its many religious sects and factions. The U.S-backed government already faces a domestic political crisis, with the Iranian- and Syrian-backed Hezbollah militant group campaigning for its removal.

But so far, the opposition has supported the assault. The Shiite Muslims of Hezbollah deeply opposes Sunni militant groups like Fatah Islam, and the movement issued a statement stressing the military’s duty to safeguard the country.

The Bush administration also has said it supports Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora, a close Ameriican ally, but hinted that it suspected Syria’s involvement in the conflict. White House press secretary Tony Snow said Tuesday the militants wanted to distract international attention from an effort at the U.N. to establish a tribunal to try suspects in the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

Lebanese security officials accuse Syria of using Fatah Islam to destabilize Lebanon, a charge Damascus denies. Syria controlled Lebanon for decades until growing street demonstrations by Lebanese and international pressure forced it to withdraw its troops after Hariri’s assassination.


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