Communicating Arts - Main Web SiteWikipedia produces history as it happens, or so it seems.
It's page, "2007 Lebanon Conflict" [1] includes the disclaimer, "This article documents a current event. Information may change rapidly as the event progresses."
In the old(en) days, the scholarly historian would sift through mountains of newspaper clippings and other data to distill the facts and import of an event; today, we write it as we can get it, and one hopes we do so with integrity.
So far, the reading of the Wikipedia article feels balanced, and it clarifies some information missing from the moment Fatah al-Islam stepped out of the shadows and on to the world's stage. For example, I am referring to an attempted bank robbery that led police to raid a safe house that then turned into a pursuit (my perception) leading police and military to the gates of Nahr al-Bared.
The facts involving the mechanics of the conflict, however, and in this instance, barely frame the story, which, in my humble opinion, is about incursion into Lebanon by a foreign Islamic force, which has simply not been embraced by other resident Islamist (I am not going to use that word as a pejorative) entrepreneurs, including Hezbollah and the camp Palestinians.
Let's move on and briefly.
International news portal France24 reports 31 members of Fatah al-Islam in custody and charged by the Lebanese government with committing "acts of terrorism." [2]
A video in the France24, provided by the Lebanese Army, shows both the exchange of gun fire between ground troops and militants situated in buildings overlooking government positions as well as mortar fire produced by the army.
Several days earlier, the Lebanese Army destroyed buildings inside Nahr al-Bared's perimiter to remove militant sniper positions.
This morning's Middle East Times reports the Lebanese Army has deployed helicopters and tanks at Nahr al-Bared, which I take as a "beginning of the end" escalation in violence that enables Lebanese forces to technically attack the camp from outside its boundaries while at the same directly observing and hitting militant positions.
According to the Middle East Times reporter NicolasTohme, "Fatah's leader in Lebanon, Sultan Abu Al Aynayn, said three gunmen had surrendered Tuesday and that 18 others said they had stopped shooting and were seeking guarantees to turn themselves in, leaving about 75 militiamen still fighting."
1. Wikipedia. "2007 Lebanon Conflict": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_North_Lebanon_conflict.
2. France24. "Lebanon charges Islamists with terrorism": http://www.france24.com/france24Public/en/news/middle-east/20070605-lebanon-nahr-al-bared-release-surrender0.html.
3. Tohme, Nicolas. "Lebanese Army pounds besieged Islamists". Middle East Times: http://www.metimes.com/storyview.php?StoryID=20070607-024149-3291r.
Correspondence and Permissions: James S. Oppenheim
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