Word: islamics
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...showdown between the Lebanese army and the Fatal al-Islam group began at 7 a.m. Friday morning when the army started shelling the camp very heavily. The soldiers have several 155-mm artillery guns on a hill about five kilometers to the east with a clear view of the Nahr al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp, where the radical Islamist group has been holed up for two weeks after initiating a series of attacks on government forces. Although Fatah al-Islam has past links to al-Qaeda, the Lebanese government says it has evidence that Syrian intelligence operatives are coordinating with...
Most of the shelling seems concentrated at the northern end of the camp, where the Fatah al-Islam base is located. But there is also shelling elsewhere, and huge plumes of black smoke are rising from the camp. There is a tank near our position that is firing rounds, too. We are close enough to the camp that the soldiers are shooting with M16 rifles as well...
There is a lot of heavy machine gun fire, and it is hard to tell how much of that is the army's rounds going in or Fatah al-Islam's rounds coming out. Some local eyewitnesses told me that Fatah al-Islam attacked an army position earlier in the morning, either trying to push the army back or making a break for it. Three mortar rounds apparently fired by Fatah al-Islam landed in the neighboring village of Hamra this morning. There is a lot of sniping going on from inside the camp. Any vantage point where...
Nearby Lebanese townspeople are cheering the army on. Some took up arms when the clashes began last week and the army was caught by surprise by Fatah al-Islam attacks. Today, some armed locals took up positions in the hills and in the nearby villages, on the lookout for Fatah al-Islam supporters who might try to attack the army's rear position. "We want the army to go in and finish them off," says Faisal Obeid, 35, a civilian in Hamra who joined the fighting in support of the army two weeks ago. "We are willing to go into...
...said Fatah al-Islam is linked to Syria. To Syrian intelligence. This is exactly what I have heard from the interrogators [of 20 arrested suspects]. That there are some connections with some Syrian intelligence. Now whether these Syrian intelligence [operatives] are working on their own, or guided by higher superiors, I don't know. We'll have to find...