LEBANESE ARMY SHELLING KILLING CIVILIANS IN REFUGEE CAMP

Hassan M. Fattah and Graham Bowley write on The New York Times web page today that residents of the Palestinian refugee camp outside of Tripoli report dozens of civilian casualties as a result of the shelling by the Lebanese Army.

"Lebanese troops shelled locations within the Nahr al Bared camp on the northern outskirts of this city, which houses about 40,000 Palestinian refugees. Militants belonging to the Islamist group Fatah al-Islam shot back with heavy machine-gun fire.

"Thick smoke rose above the city, and the taller buildings in the camp were visibly pockmarked by bullet holes."

This is madness. As I wrote earlier today, it is like the Allied Forces bombing German cities during WWII. It is indiscriminate shelling, and there are sure to be many more casualties. Nothing will be accomplished by Lebanon by these barbaric tacts which certainly violate the laws of war and the Geneva Convention.

The BBC web page has recent photos.

The New York Times story adds this comment:

"Residents of Tripoli expressed support for the army’s efforts. “This should have happened from the start,” said one man, who stood in a crowd of onlookers as the tanks fired into the camp. The crowd shouted, “God is great, and God protect the army,” with each shell fired.
“We wish the government would destroy the whole camp and the rest of the camps,” said another in the crowd, Ahmad al-Marooq. “Nothing good comes out of the Palestinians.”

"But military experts said a direct assault on the camps would be a grave mistake. “We cannot afford to have that here,” said Elias Hanna, a retired army general, who warned against such a move. “This is not a question of the army’s capabilities or its professionalism. You simply can’t send the army into the camps to arrest 200 people without paying a heavy price in civilian casualties.”"