Word: islamics
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...Lebanon's government would like us to believe Fatah Islam started the fighting there on Sunday on the orders of Damascus. I hope they know better. Whether Syria is providing tactical help or not, at the end of the day Fatah Islam is the Syrian regime's mortal enemy. If the fighting were to somehow lead to an all-out civil war, Syrian stability will be undermined. Lebanon has had a Sunni fundamentalist element in the north for more than 25 years. As I've written before in this column, the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood used northern Lebanon as a rear...
...Nonetheless, fingers remain pointed at Syria, in part because of the regime's history of working with groups of all manner of ideologies as part of its struggle for strategic control of Lebanon. Lebanese officials suspect that Syria has covert ties with Fatah al-Islam because Syria freed al-Absi from prison and because al-Absi maintained a long membership in the Syrian-backed Fatah Intifadeh group. The tie is difficult to prove, for the moment at least. But the Siniora government's suspicions, the heavy fighting in Tripoli and the looming showdown with Syria over the U.N. tribunal...
...struck by several mortar rounds while unloading its emergency provisions. Although none of the crew were harmed, three vehicles were damaged and had to be abandoned. The U.N. said it was unsure whether the mortar fire was from the Lebanese army ringing the camp or from the Fatah al-Islam militants holed up inside. But the drivers of the trucks said they were sure it was Fatah al-Islam...
...Mustafa, a Palestinian employee of the U.N. agency responsible for refugees, had found himself trapped in the camp when fighting broke out. He said that the Fatah al-Islam militants were forcing people to remain in the camp by shooting at anyone attempting to flee. The one tiny medical clinic in the camp was completely overwhelmed with casualties, he said. "The wounded cannot move anywhere. If they can't reach medical help, they die," he explained, adding that he and his colleagues were forced to amputate the hand of a wounded man themselves...
...Lebanese government has said it intends to finish off Fatah al-Islam once and for all, and the soldiers expect the battle to intensify once the open-ended cease-fire ends, as they believe it inevitably will. Long after sundown, vehicles carrying refugees were still exiting from the camp. But heading in the other direction toward the frontline Lebanese army positions were columns of armored personnel carriers filled with fresh troops in preparation for what could be the climax of the battle in the coming hours and days...