Army, militants clash in Lebanon, 19 dead

Army, militants clash in Lebanon, 19 dead
REUTERS

BEIRUT, JANUARY 4: At least 18 people have died in fighting between the Lebanese army and Islamic militants in clashes described as the army's bloodiest since the 1975-1990 civil war.

Separately, troops shot dead a Palestinian who fired grenades at the Russian embassy here on Monday to protest at Moscow's onslaught against Islamist rebels in Chechnya.

Although the incidents appeared unrelated, security sources said both could be linked to Palestinian radical Ahmed Abdul Karim al Saadi, also known as Abu Mehjen, who is on the run from a Lebanese death sentence.

Battles had raged in the mountains around Sir Ed-Dinniyeh, North of Tripoli, since new year's day after militants from the ``Takfir and Hijrah'' group ambushed an army patrol and killed five soldiers.

Overnight, soldiers with machine guns and rocket-propelled grenade launchers stormed the village of Kfar Hibbou after militants had taken refuge there, killing 11 gunmen and taking several prisoners. The army said two women the militants had takenhostage were also killed, as well as four soldiers.

The body of a lieutenant who had been captured at the onset of the clashes was found nearby with bound hands.

Security sources said Takfir and Hijrah was an offshoot of the Gama'a Islamiya (Islamic group) and linked it to a series of recent attacks on churches in Tripoli and here denounced by officials as attempts to upset the delicate sectarian balance.

The military, Lebanon's most secular and powerful institution,is sometimes seen as a guarantor of that balance and local newspapers said the clashes were the worst involving the army since the civil war.

Some papers here said Takfir and Hijrah included Palestinians, Syrians and Egyptians.

They, too, linked it to the Gama'a, which has killed scores of tourists, civilians and policemen in a bid to set up a purist Muslim state, as well as to Egyptian militants from the Islamic jihad, which assassinated President Anwar Sadat in 1981.