One killed in clashes in Lebanon camp after militant targeted (AFP)
24 minutes ago
SIDON, Lebanon (AFP) - A gunman was killed in heavy clashes in Ain el-Helweh Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon's southern port city of Sidon on Monday after a militant was shot dead, a Palestinian official said.
Munir Maqdah, the Fatah commander in the camp who heads a multi-factional security committee, named the dead man as Ahmed al-Hassan of the Islamist Jund al-Sham group. He said four others, including a civilian, were wounded.
Fighters used machine-guns and rocket-propelled grenades in the clashes between Jund al-Sham and its Fatah rivals after Issam al-Beqaai was shot dead in his father's clothing store.
Both Beqaai and Hassan were members of Jund al-Sham.
"Palestinian Authority Representative Abbas Ziki has informed Fatah's leadership of the decision to turn over the suspect in the initial shooting to Lebanese security forces," Maqdah told AFP.
After Beqaai was shot the army took up position at the camp's entrance, just metres (yards) away from the fighting, as dozens of panicked families fled.
Several rockets landed in a residential area outside the camp, but no casualties or damage were reported.
The fighting later subsided after calls were made over mosque loudspeakers urging gunmen to cease fire.
Palestinian officials said the incident that sparked the clashes was a vendetta killing following a shooting 10 days ago between Beqaai and another man thought to be close to the secular Fatah faction.
Ain el-Helweh has been the scene of recent clashes between Fatah and Jund al-Sham, a Sunni Muslim group of mainly Lebanese without a clear hierarchy.
Extremists believed to have links with Al-Qaeda have settled in Lebanon's Palestinian refugee camps, especially in Ain el-Helweh which has a population of more than 45,000.
The camps are outside the control of the Lebanese authorities, with Palestinian factions in charge of security.
Last summer, more than 400 people were killed in a 15-week battle in the northern Nahr al-Bared camp before the Lebanese army expelled Islamists holed up there.
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