Armed clashes erupt in Palestinian refugee camp in southern Lebanon

BEIRUT, Jan. 3 (Xinhua) -- Armed clashes erupted Saturday between fighters from two Palestinian militant groups in a Palestinian refugee camp in southern Lebanon, the state-run National News Agency (NNA) reported.

"The Fatah Movement and Jund al-Sham Islamist militants used all kinds of machine guns during the clashes in the Palestinian refugee camp of Ain al-Hilweh in southern Lebanon," NNA added.

Local Nahranet news website reported that one person was wounded during the half-an-hour-long clashes. "The camp's joint security committee had intervened to stop the fighting," it said.

Tayyar news website said that the injured militant was a Fatah al-Islam member.

Mounir Maqdah, who commands the main Palestinian police force in Ain al-Hilweh, said the clashes were contained after a meeting of the camp's security committee. He added that the fighting erupted when Jund al-Sham members fired at a Fatah bureau in the camp.

The clashes in Ain al-Hilweh near southwestern Lebanese city of Saida came after local An Nahar daily reported on Tuesday that al-Qaida militants are plotting terrorist attacks against state institutions and foreign missions in Lebanon.

The newspaper quoted a well-informed security source as saying that Lebanese security agencies have received information about the infiltration of al-Qaida militants into the country from Pakistan via Turkey, Greece and the Lebanese-Syrian border.

The al-Qaida members are training other militants in the refugee camp of Ain el-Hilweh, to carry out attacks against UN Interim Forces in Lebanon (UNIFIL) stationed in South Lebanon, the source added.

As an al-Qaida-inspired militia, Fatah al-Islam fought fierce battles with the Lebanese army in Nahr al-Bared camp in northern Lebanon in 2007.

The U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA)lists nearly 400,000 Palestinian refugees in Lebanon. Most of them live in 12 camps across the country.

Source: Xinhua.
Link: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2010-01/03/content_12747451.htm.