BEIRUT, Lebanon (CNN) -- Smoke billowed Monday over a Palestinian refugee camp as Lebanese forces battled Islamic militants for a second day near the northern city of Tripoli. The clashes have left dozens dead and wounded.
The Lebanese Cabinet met Monday to discuss how it will respond; on Sunday, the Cabinet declared its "full support" for military efforts to end the fighting, said Mohamed Chatah, a senior adviser to Prime Minister Fouad Siniora.
"I'm not in a position to tell you the exact manner in which security forces are going to root up these elements, but it's going to happen," Chatah said. "It's going to happen after the security forces themselves advise the government on what they need." (Watch smoke rise over the refugee camp as a fire rages below )
Lebanese security forces are targeting militants and are not randomly shooting into the refugee camp, Chatah said.
The fighting was sparked Sunday when Lebanese Internal Security Forces raided a building in a neighborhood north of Tripoli, army sources said.
Militants from Fatah al-Islam began shooting at the forces, who returned fire, triggering clashes in the vicinity of the Nahr al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp.
Lebanese Internal Security Forces arrested four militants and found the bodies of 10 militants inside the building where they had barricaded themselves, an ISF spokesman said. Explosives were strapped to two bodies.
Security forces conducted the raid after Fatah al-Islam members tried to rob a bank Sunday and "take control of several security strongholds in the north, as if they were planning to carry out a major security operation," according to Ahmad Fatfat, a member of parliament and a minister in Siniora's Cabinet.
Nahr al-Bared is about nine miles (16 kilometers) north of Tripoli, Lebanon's second-largest city that is home to a large population of Sunni Muslims.
The overcrowded camp houses 31,023 registered refugees, according to the U.N. Relief and Works Agency. It is one of 12 Palestinian camps in Lebanon in which the United Nations operates. The agency estimates there are 350,000 refugees in the camps. (Facts on refugee camps)
The battle near the camp continued into Monday, killing 27 Lebanese soldiers and wounding 39 others. At least 15 militants have been killed in the clashes, security sources said.
Among the dead militants was Saddam al Hajj Dib, the sources said. Dib -- along with his brother, cousin and three other men -- was being tried in absentia in a Lebanese court for plotting to bomb two passenger trains in Germany in July. The bombs did not explode.
"Everybody in Tripoli is just scared," said Maya Halabi, a resident of Tripoli. "We never knew that there are terrorists in our town." (Watch civilians, soldiers scurry as the sound of gunfire fills the streets of Tripoli )
The fighting has left aid agencies hamstrung in their attempts to help the wounded and count the casualties. A U.N. Relief and Works Agency official in London said U.N. staffers are among the wounded.
"They have been unable to move around," said Richard Cook, adding that the agency is attempting to negotiate a cease-fire so food and medical supplies can be delivered to the camp.
The Lebanese Red Cross is "receiving a lot of calls" and is trying to help those in need, but the violence limits the agency's abilities to do so, said Director George Ketaneh.
Links to al Qaeda unclear
It is unclear if the militant group Fatah al-Islam is linked to al Qaeda.
Though Syria has claimed Fatah al-Islam is connected to the terror group, Lebanese Interior Minister Hasan al-Sabaa has described Fatah al-Islam as "part of the Syrian intelligence-security apparatus," according to Jane's Information Group, which provides analysis on international security matters.
In 2004, a Jordanian military court handed down in-absentia convictions for Shakir al-Absi -- now the leader of Fatah al-Islam -- and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in the October 2002 murder of Laurence Foley, a U.S. Agency for International Development diplomat who was gunned down in front of his Amman home.
Al-Zarqawi, who later became leader of al Qaeda in Iraq, was killed in a U.S. airstrike north of Baghdad last year.
In June, Al-Absi told Al-Arabiya TV that his group had no connection to al Qaeda or Syria, according to Jane's. Rather, he said, his group seeks to reform Palestinian refugee camps in accordance with Islamic law, or sharia.
Though al-Absi has been linked to al Qaeda, Lebanon's national police commander, Maj. Gen. Ashraf Rifi, scoffed at the purported connection, saying Fatah al-Islam was a pawn of Damascus, The Associated Press reported.
"Perhaps there are some deluded people among them, but they are not al Qaeda. This is imitation al Qaeda, a 'Made in Syria' one," he told the AP.
Nayla Mouawad, Lebanese social affairs minister, said the militants have "Syrian allegiance and only take orders from Syria."
Syrian leaders deny fomenting violence in Lebanon.
Lebanon's government is led by anti-Syrian politicians, including the prime minister.
The tenuous security situation prompted Syria temporarily to close two of its five border crossings with Lebanon, an interior ministry spokesman told the state-run Syrian-Arab News Agency.
The crossings will remain closed "till the security situation becomes more secure in north Lebanon," the source said.
Fatal bombing in Beirut
Meanwhile, a bomb went off late Sunday in the Beirut neighborhood of Ashrafieh, killing one woman, Lebanese security forces said.
Several others were wounded in the blast, which went off beneath a car at the southern entrance to a shopping mall in the east Beirut Christian neighborhood, sources said.
Political sources close to Siniora's U.S.-supported government said the bomb was similar to other explosive devices that have gone off in Beirut's Christian neighborhoods since the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
The U.N. Security Council is considering passing a resolution that would enforce the establishment of an international tribunal to try suspects in the Hariri assassination, an idea unpopular with the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, which has links to Syria.
Conflicts in south Lebanon between Siniora's government and Hezbollah have prevented the creation of a tribunal. Siniora last week reiterated his call for the United Nations to create the international tribunal.
The political sources said the explosion was an attempt by Syria to sow seeds of instability ahead of the Security Council deliberations.
CNN's Saad Abedine, Caroline Faraj, Nada Husseini, Octavia Nasr and Brent Sadler contributed to this report.
Copyright 2007 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.
The Lebanese Cabinet met Monday to discuss how it will respond; on Sunday, the Cabinet declared its "full support" for military efforts to end the fighting, said Mohamed Chatah, a senior adviser to Prime Minister Fouad Siniora.
"I'm not in a position to tell you the exact manner in which security forces are going to root up these elements, but it's going to happen," Chatah said. "It's going to happen after the security forces themselves advise the government on what they need." (Watch smoke rise over the refugee camp as a fire rages below )
Lebanese security forces are targeting militants and are not randomly shooting into the refugee camp, Chatah said.
The fighting was sparked Sunday when Lebanese Internal Security Forces raided a building in a neighborhood north of Tripoli, army sources said.
Militants from Fatah al-Islam began shooting at the forces, who returned fire, triggering clashes in the vicinity of the Nahr al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp.
Lebanese Internal Security Forces arrested four militants and found the bodies of 10 militants inside the building where they had barricaded themselves, an ISF spokesman said. Explosives were strapped to two bodies.
Security forces conducted the raid after Fatah al-Islam members tried to rob a bank Sunday and "take control of several security strongholds in the north, as if they were planning to carry out a major security operation," according to Ahmad Fatfat, a member of parliament and a minister in Siniora's Cabinet.
Nahr al-Bared is about nine miles (16 kilometers) north of Tripoli, Lebanon's second-largest city that is home to a large population of Sunni Muslims.
The overcrowded camp houses 31,023 registered refugees, according to the U.N. Relief and Works Agency. It is one of 12 Palestinian camps in Lebanon in which the United Nations operates. The agency estimates there are 350,000 refugees in the camps. (Facts on refugee camps)
The battle near the camp continued into Monday, killing 27 Lebanese soldiers and wounding 39 others. At least 15 militants have been killed in the clashes, security sources said.
Among the dead militants was Saddam al Hajj Dib, the sources said. Dib -- along with his brother, cousin and three other men -- was being tried in absentia in a Lebanese court for plotting to bomb two passenger trains in Germany in July. The bombs did not explode.
"Everybody in Tripoli is just scared," said Maya Halabi, a resident of Tripoli. "We never knew that there are terrorists in our town." (Watch civilians, soldiers scurry as the sound of gunfire fills the streets of Tripoli )
The fighting has left aid agencies hamstrung in their attempts to help the wounded and count the casualties. A U.N. Relief and Works Agency official in London said U.N. staffers are among the wounded.
"They have been unable to move around," said Richard Cook, adding that the agency is attempting to negotiate a cease-fire so food and medical supplies can be delivered to the camp.
The Lebanese Red Cross is "receiving a lot of calls" and is trying to help those in need, but the violence limits the agency's abilities to do so, said Director George Ketaneh.
Links to al Qaeda unclear
It is unclear if the militant group Fatah al-Islam is linked to al Qaeda.
Though Syria has claimed Fatah al-Islam is connected to the terror group, Lebanese Interior Minister Hasan al-Sabaa has described Fatah al-Islam as "part of the Syrian intelligence-security apparatus," according to Jane's Information Group, which provides analysis on international security matters.
In 2004, a Jordanian military court handed down in-absentia convictions for Shakir al-Absi -- now the leader of Fatah al-Islam -- and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in the October 2002 murder of Laurence Foley, a U.S. Agency for International Development diplomat who was gunned down in front of his Amman home.
Al-Zarqawi, who later became leader of al Qaeda in Iraq, was killed in a U.S. airstrike north of Baghdad last year.
In June, Al-Absi told Al-Arabiya TV that his group had no connection to al Qaeda or Syria, according to Jane's. Rather, he said, his group seeks to reform Palestinian refugee camps in accordance with Islamic law, or sharia.
Though al-Absi has been linked to al Qaeda, Lebanon's national police commander, Maj. Gen. Ashraf Rifi, scoffed at the purported connection, saying Fatah al-Islam was a pawn of Damascus, The Associated Press reported.
"Perhaps there are some deluded people among them, but they are not al Qaeda. This is imitation al Qaeda, a 'Made in Syria' one," he told the AP.
Nayla Mouawad, Lebanese social affairs minister, said the militants have "Syrian allegiance and only take orders from Syria."
Syrian leaders deny fomenting violence in Lebanon.
Lebanon's government is led by anti-Syrian politicians, including the prime minister.
The tenuous security situation prompted Syria temporarily to close two of its five border crossings with Lebanon, an interior ministry spokesman told the state-run Syrian-Arab News Agency.
The crossings will remain closed "till the security situation becomes more secure in north Lebanon," the source said.
Fatal bombing in Beirut
Meanwhile, a bomb went off late Sunday in the Beirut neighborhood of Ashrafieh, killing one woman, Lebanese security forces said.
Several others were wounded in the blast, which went off beneath a car at the southern entrance to a shopping mall in the east Beirut Christian neighborhood, sources said.
Political sources close to Siniora's U.S.-supported government said the bomb was similar to other explosive devices that have gone off in Beirut's Christian neighborhoods since the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
The U.N. Security Council is considering passing a resolution that would enforce the establishment of an international tribunal to try suspects in the Hariri assassination, an idea unpopular with the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, which has links to Syria.
Conflicts in south Lebanon between Siniora's government and Hezbollah have prevented the creation of a tribunal. Siniora last week reiterated his call for the United Nations to create the international tribunal.
The political sources said the explosion was an attempt by Syria to sow seeds of instability ahead of the Security Council deliberations.
CNN's Saad Abedine, Caroline Faraj, Nada Husseini, Octavia Nasr and Brent Sadler contributed to this report.
Copyright 2007 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.
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