Fatah-Jund al-Sham Fight it Out in Ein al-Hilweh, Casualties

At least one person was killed and four were wounded in fierce hit-and-run clashes between rival factions in the southern Palestinian refugee camp of Ein al-Hilweh overnight, Palestinian sources reported Saturday.

 

The clash between fighters of the mainstream Fatah faction and militants of the Jund al-Sham terrorist gang spread across the densely-populated camp on the southern edge of the port city of Sidon.

 

Jund al-Sham militants attacked areas controlled by Fatah fighters with rocket-propelled grenades, mortar rounds and Kalashnikov assault rifles, inflicting damage to property and setting fire to several residential apartments and shops.

 

Jund al-Sham, according to witnesses in Ein al-Hilweh, accused Fatah of setting the stage for an all-out assault to uproot the fanatic gang from the camp, the largest Palestinian refugee population center in Lebanon.

 

Tension started late on Thursday when Fatah fighters captured a Jund al-Sham ranking commander known as Hussam Maarouf and turned him over to the Lebanese Army.

 

Maarouf is wanted for scores of crimes and attacks committed both in Ein al-Hilweh and other parts of Lebanon and accused of maintaining links with the Fatah al-Islam terrorist network.

 

Clashes subsided early Saturday, but families that fled the camp overnight remained in shelters provided by mosques in Sidon, fearing renewal of clashes.

 

Jund al-Sham is reportedly headed by a wanted Lebanese man from the northern town of Tripoli known as Ghandy Sahmarani, who goes by the code-name of Abu Ramez.

 

Sahmarani led a fierce confrontation with Lebanese troops in Ein al-Hilweh last summer as the regular force clashed with Fatah al-Islam terrorists in the northern Palestinian refugee camp of Nahr al-Bared.

 

Most of Jund al-Sham”s fighters are Lebanese citizens who had sought refuge in Ein al-Hilweh since 1999 after fighting a fierce confrontation against the Lebanese Army in the northern Dinnieh mountainous terrain.

 

The camp is off limits to Lebanese troops and law enforcement agencies.

 

Picture: A Palestinian Fatah fighter walks past damaged shops in an alley at the Ain al-Hilweh refugee camp after night clashes between rival Palestinian groups in the camp at Sidon city in southern Lebanon March 22, 2008.REUTERS/Ali Hashisho (LEBANON)