Lebanon charged 20 members of Fatah al-Islam with terrorism

Lebanon charged 20 members of Fatah al-Islam with terrorism and Lebanese troops battled jihadists from the militant group at a Palestinian refugee camp in the north for an 11th day. The charges against the 19 Lebanese and one Syrian, all in custody, carried the death penalty and were linked to fighting around the Nahr al-Bared camp that has killed 79 people -- 34 soldiers, 27 militants and 18 civilians. The Lebanese authorities blame the group for starting the confrontations by attacking army positions at the camp and near the northern city of Tripoli on May 20. The fighting, the worst in Lebanon since the 1975-1990 civil war, has continued sporadically. The combatants exchanged artillery shells and mortar bombs for hours overnight in the heaviest fighting in a week. But the clashes tapered off in the early hours of Wednesday.

The Lebanese government has demanded the militants surrender. Fatah al-Islam say they have been acting in self defense and reject the demand to hand over any of their fighters. A 1969 Arab agreement stops the army from entering Lebanon's 12 Palestinian refugee camps, home to 400,000. The government has given Palestinian leaders in Lebanon a chance to find a way out of the stand-off, as it is concerned that the refugees will see more army action at the camp as an attack on their community. More than 25,000 of the camp's 40,000 Palestinians have fled from the fighting. Most of the displaced refugees have flooded the nearby Beddawi camp, where humanitarian organizations have been carrying out relief work. More food supplies, medicine and water were sent to Nahr al-Bared, whose remaining inhabitants have no electricity or running water, witnesses said. The prospect of a decisive military solution to the stand-off has been played down by the government in recent days because it could trigger violence at other refugee camps, even though Fatah al-Islam has little support among Palestinians. Members of Lebanon's anti-Syrian cabinet have described Fatah al-Islam as a tool of Syrian intelligence, although Damascus denies any links to the group. Lebanese authorities say Fatah al-Islam includes Arabs from Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Tunisia, Syria and Lebanon.