Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Lebanese militants vow to take battle outside camp

By Robert Fisk

"It was a familiar routine. Just as the Lebanese army boasted of another "victory" amid the wreckage of the Nahr el-Bared Palestinian camp - its al-Qa'ida-style rebels still holding out against the state authority - one of the Islamists' spokesmen announced in an audiotape that some of the gunmen had escaped and were planning a "black day" for the government.

This is grim news indeed for a country facing a presidential election crisis and whose administration is being militarily supported by the United States as part of its "war on terror".

The tape emerged only hours after the US said it had placed Fatah al-Islam on its now 43-strong list of "terrorist" organisations which would have their funds frozen in the US and would not be permitted to enter America. Fighting to the death amid the ruins of the camp, it is highly doubtful that the gunmen there have bank accounts on Wall Street or that any have applied for visas to the US. But that's the way the "war on terror" works. Each side ratchets up the odds and kills more human beings.

A symbol of just how serious the situation has become in Lebanon lies in the statistics. Of the 200 or so people who have died since the camp battle broke out in May, 136 were Lebanese soldiers. That's only 32 short of the entire British Army death toll in Iraq since the 2003 invasion.

The siege has now put one of Lebanon's major power stations out of action after the insurgents fired rockets at it. The result is widespread power cuts......."

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