Communicating Arts - Main Web SiteSix hours: two dead--Lebanese soldiers hit by a rocket propelled grenade while in their armored personnel carrier.[1]
According to an Agence France-Presse piece in Turkish Daily News, about 5,000 Palestinians remain in the camp.[2]
Facts. Official. Released. Disseminated.
I am not inclined to rewrite the Nahr al-Bared story from someone else's rewrite of a press release or other common source, but I will try to follow it here at intervals throughout the day.
The story has all the difficult, dramatic elements: 400,000 [3] restive (possibly) Lebanese "refugees" (in the U.S., I think we would call such camps "reservations" and the residents permanent) Palestinians (who may see themselves the victims in this piece of combat--they would be right, but however the civilian casualties mount up, they would not be so right making themselves the primary point of the conflict); the mysterious "terrorists", a so far criminal party of bank robbers and assorted international pickup players ("mercenaries" might imply payroll; "brigands" would be too dignified); surrounding international intrigue involving a UN tribunal; etc.
Of course, it's a "hot" bit of combat too, the impossible, meaningless much ado that makes careers, lines pockets, destroys families, and otherwise turns placid small communities into cesspools of blood.
I'd say Ian Fleming and Sean Connery were back, except there's no Bond in sight and every bit of the story's real (although I have my doubts about the bus, the children, and the Tripoli militia, information passed along in last night's brief survey).
1. Reuter's, "Fighting resumes in north Lebanon refugee camp": http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSL0112932120070602
2. Turkish Daily News, "Fighting erupts anew at Lebanon refugee camp": http://www.turkishdailynews.com.tr/article.php?enewsid=74805
3. SwissInfo, "Army and militants clash in Lebanon": http://www.swissinfo.org/eng/international/ticker/detail/Army_and_militants_clash_in_Lebanon.html?siteSect=143&sid=7882063&cKey=1180768056000
Correspondence and Permissions: James S. Oppenheim
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