MORE BUTCHERY AT LEBANONESE REFUGEE CAMP

Hama Rules in North Lebanon (LGF)
In northern Lebanon, we’re seeing a demonstration of what Thomas Friedman named “Hama Rules,” the only rules that matter in the Middle East—i.e. no rules at all, just the brutal exercise of power: Death toll climbs as camp battle heats up in north Lebanon.

And if this were Israel attacking a Palestinian camp with heavy weaponry and wiping out hundreds of people, imagine the screams of outrage we’d hear from media and “human rights” groups. When it’s Arabs killing Arabs, the silence is deafening.

NAHR AL-BARED, Lebanon (AFP) - Lebanese gunners and tanks blasted positions of rocket-firing Islamists in heavy clashes around a camp on Friday, as the army’s death toll neared 100 almost eight weeks into a bloody showdown. Fatah al-Islam militants fired 11 Katyusha-type rockets, in four salvos, most of which crashed in fields several kilometres (miles) to the northeast and south of Nahr al-Bared camp, without causing casualties, the military said. One rocket hit an empty parked car in a village to the north.

The fighting erupted on May 20 when the Islamist militants launched a string of attacks on soldiers, killing 27 of them around the Palestinian refugee camp and in the nearby northern port city of Tripoli, according to the army.

The Beirut government has vowed to wipe out Fatah al-Islam, a shadowy band of Arab Islamist fighters inspired by Al-Qaeda, while Palestinian Muslim clerics have failed in mediation efforts.

Two more troops were killed in clashes on Friday between the military and the Islamist holdouts in the besieged camp, and another soldier died of wounds from Thursday, an army spokesman said, raising to nine its losses in two days. The latest
deaths have brought to at least 184 the number of people killed, including 95 soldiers and at least 68 Islamists, according to an AFP toll compiled from official sources and reports.