5 killed in clashes at Lebanon camp

AFP photo

Security forces have clashed with Islamic extremists for the third consecutive day in a Palestinian camp in Lebanon.

The toll in two days of clashes rose to five yesterday, medics said, as local factions worked to implement a security plan.

Clashes erupted in the camp late on April 7 as Palestinian factions participating in a joint security force begun deploying throughout the area in the southern city of Sidon.

They came under fire from a local Islamic extremist group in part of the camp, prompting clashes that Lebanese and Palestinian medics said on April 9 have now killed five people and wounded at least 30, mostly civilians.
 
Among the dead were two civilians, two members of the joint Palestinian security force and one member of the extremist group, the medical sources said.

The fighting has prompted security measures outside the camp, which Lebanese security forces do not enter by long-standing agreement.

Ain al-Hilweh is home to multiple armed factions, and has been plagued by intermittent clashes between them as well as against smaller extremist groups. Lebanon’s army does not enter Palestinian refugee camps, where security is managed by joint committees of Palestinian factions.