Lebanese

BEIRUT -- A new front erupted in Lebanon's simmering political conflict yesterday in the northern city of Tripoli, where running battles between the Lebanese army and a radical new Palestinian organization said to have ties to al-Qaida killed at least 39 people. In the worst internal fighting since the end of Lebanon's civil war 17 years ago, the army battled militants throughout the day in the streets of the port city and on the edges of the Palestinian refugee camp Nahr el-Bared, which late last year fell under the control of a radical group calling itself Fateh al-Islam.

Beirut -- A Lebanese lawmaker who had long been critical of the Syrian regime was killed yesterday along with his son and eight people when a bomb exploded near a popular waterfront promenade in Beirut. The assassination threatened to further destabilize this small country already paralyzed politically, stretched militarily and suffering economically. Walid Eido, 65, a lawmaker with the anti-Syria coalition, was driving with his son Khaled and two bodyguards in a predominantly Sunni part of town when the bomb tore through nearby cafes and ice cream parlors just before 6 p.m. The explosion was so powerful it blew out windows on the 10th floor of a hotel across the street, sending a shower of glass onto the busy street below.

JERUSALEM -- In a trial run for Israel's eventual withdrawal from Lebanon, an Israeli-backed militia announced yesterday that it is vacating a strategic enclave in southern Lebanon it has held for 14 years.The pullback by the South Lebanon Army, Israel's proxy in the region, will leave the mostly Christian Jezzine pocket open for takeover by Lebanese government forces -- or by Islamic Hezbollah guerrillas who are waging a war of attrition against Israel. Israeli officials are watching closely to see which scenario unfolds.

JERUSALEM -- Israel buried yesterday the remains of an Israeli soldier returned in a swap for Islamic guerrillas killed in the war in South Lebanon, ending a family's personal tragedy and the nation's remorse over a botched commando raid.Navy commando Itamar Ilya was one of 11 Israeli soldiers killed in a Sept. 4 raid in South Lebanon that went awry. The Israelis mistakenly triggered two bombs, which detonated a pack of explosives being carried by Ilya. The 21-year-old soldier's body was dismembered in the explosion.

BEIRUT, Lebanon -- Pope John Paul II concluded his historic visit to Lebanon yesterday with a strong call for sovereignty, saying the country could never fully recover from its war wounds as long as two occupying armies remain on its soil.The pope did not specifically name the Syrian troops that patrol the streets of Beirut and man checkpoints in the north of the country. Nor did he mention by name the Israeli army, which has commandeered a chunk of southern Lebanon for a security zone.But his meaning was clear in a special papal exhortation on the state of Lebanese Christians.

BEIRUT, Lebanon -- Pope John Paul II encouraged the people of Lebanon, a nation still wracked by the pain of civil war, to open "a new page in their history" yesterday and urged the country's youth to build bridges between the different communities."

IN HIS FIRST PAPAL VISIT to the Middle East, Pope John Paul II addressed a tenth of the nation in a Beirut square. Despite his frailty of years, he clearly hopes to visit Jerusalem in a climate of peace allowing that.Lebanon once served the world as a role model for people of disparate faiths and ethnicities trying to get along. For the past quarter century, it has served as the reverse, a model for others to kill based on faith and differentness and conditions of birth.The pope's first call was for reconciliation between people of different faiths, Maronite Christians (who have a separate liturgy but recognize the authority of the Church in Rome)

BEIRUT, Lebanon -- Israel shelled civilian areas of southern Lebanon yesterday for the first time since fighting between its forces and Hezbollah guerrillas ended three weeks ago.Syria, the major power broker in Lebanon, immediately accused Israel of violating the U.S.-backed cease-fire agreement.The shelling was in retaliation for a morning attack by Hezbollah guerrillas on targets inside Israel's so-called "security zone" in southern Lebanon. Two guerrillas were killed and one Israeli soldier was wounded in that clash, the latest inside the zone inrecent weeks.

WASHINGTON -- With tacit U.S. acceptance, the dream of an independent Lebanon is likely to becoming a casualty of the Arab-Israeli peace process.In its drive to nail down a peace treaty with Syria this year, the Israeli government of Prime Minister Shimon Peres has signaled that it won't object to continued Syrian control of Lebanon so long as the Israel-Lebanon border is secure.The future of Lebanon has never been the most burning issue between Israel and Syria. Negotiations between the two bitter Middle East foes, which resumed yesterday at the secluded Wye River Conference Center on Maryland's Eastern Shore, have mostly focused on Israeli withdrawal from the strategic Golan Heights in exchange for full peace with Syria.

JERUSALEM -- The Israeli squeeze on Lebanon continued yesterday as Israeli artillery opened fire on the southern part of the country and Israeli gunships maintained their three-week blockade of nearly 50 miles of Lebanese coast.Three Lebanese were killed in artillery bombardments that were aimed north of an Israeli-controlled strip in southern Lebanon, according to reports broadcast by state-run Israel Radio, which said the artillery was aimed at "terrorists."The Israeli blockade includes the Mediterranean ports of Sidon, Tyre and Damour, just 12 miles south of Beirut.

TRIPOLI, Lebanon - A bomb hidden in a briefcase tore through a bus packed with Lebanese soldiers on their way to work yesterday morning, killing 15 people, including nine soldiers, and wounding more than 40 people. The bombing overshadowed news from Damascus that Syria and Lebanon would establish diplomatic relations for the first time since each country achieved independence from France in the 1940s. The announcement, at the start of a fence-mending mission by President Michel Suleiman of Lebanon, did not say when the countries would exchange ambassadors.

BEIRUT, Lebanon -- At least five civilians were killed in Beirut yesterday evening during an hours-long clash between Lebanese soldiers and young Shiite Muslim men protesting electricity cuts, security officials said. A dozen or more people were wounded in the melee when gunfire erupted as demonstrators were throwing rocks and fireworks at troops. Several residents in an adjacent Christian neighborhood were injured by a hand grenade, Lebanese television reported. The violence came two days after a car bomb killed one of the country's top intelligence officials and 12 days after another blast struck a U.S. Embassy convoy, killing three civilians.

After a week of whirlwind travel throughout the Middle East, President Bush returns to the U.S. today hoping that his trip has secured the support of Persian Gulf states in America's drive to counter Iran's regional ambitions. But while Mr. Bush worked to draft Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates into a reinvigorated containment strategy for Iran, and while U.S. and Iranian warships played chicken in the Strait of Hormuz, another conflict between Washington and Tehran was quietly unfolding in Lebanon.

Nahr el-Bared, Lebanon -- The Lebanese army routed a group of Islamist militants from a Palestinian refugee camp yesterday, ending more than three months of intense fighting that left thousands homeless and killed more than 300 people. The final countdown to the battle in northern Lebanon started early in the day, when troops thwarted escape attempts by the militants, an army source said. At least 30 fighters were killed and 15 were captured at the Nahr el-Bared camp, the official said.

TRIPOLI, Lebanon -- A bomb ripped through a United Nations convoy in southern Lebanon yesterday, killing six peacekeepers under Spanish command. The attack, which took place on a day when the Lebanese military fought a battle against Sunni Muslim radicals in the north, heightened fears that a second front might have opened in the fight against militants linked to al-Qaida. The attacks on opposite ends of the country could stretch the Lebanese army further and weaken a country already beset by sectarian tension, political stalemate and a worsening economic crisis.

Beirut -- A Lebanese lawmaker who had long been critical of the Syrian regime was killed yesterday along with his son and eight people when a bomb exploded near a popular waterfront promenade in Beirut. The assassination threatened to further destabilize this small country already paralyzed politically, stretched militarily and suffering economically. Walid Eido, 65, a lawmaker with the anti-Syria coalition, was driving with his son Khaled and two bodyguards in a predominantly Sunni part of town when the bomb tore through nearby cafes and ice cream parlors just before 6 p.m. The explosion was so powerful it blew out windows on the 10th floor of a hotel across the street, sending a shower of glass onto the busy street below.

NAHR EL-BARED, Lebanon -- Palestinian refugees fleeing their homes yesterday under cover of a cease-fire expressed outrage at three days of shelling by the Lebanese army and sympathy for the militant group that was the target of the barrages. "They didn't want to harm us," said Amira Suleiman, referring to the radical Islamic militant group, Fatah al-Islam. "They are peaceful, reading the Quran." Suleiman and 10 other members of her family were among an estimated 15,000 residents who have streamed out of the Nahr el-Bared refugee camp in the past two days.

NAHR EL-BARED, Lebanon -- Thousands of Palestinian refugees, caught for days in the crossfire between warring Lebanese government troops and Islamist militants with alleged al-Qaida ties, began fleeing their embattled camp last night as a lull in the fighting took hold. Intense street battles broke out around this refugee camp in northern Lebanon this week after an army raid against militants from a group called Fatah al-Islam wanted in a bank robbery. The fighting gave way to a shaky cease-fire yesterday afternoon as reports of a mounting civilian toll were aired on Arab-language television.

The plumes of black smoke rising this week from a Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon and the sound of gunfire are eerily reminiscent of the country's decades-old civil war and the ethnic fault lines that kept it going for 15 years. The difference now is that Lebanon's military is fighting to rout a new band of extremists, clearly well armed and reportedly influenced by al-Qaida. The government of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora is asserting itself - as it must to protect this fledgling democracy.

BEIRUT -- A new front erupted in Lebanon's simmering political conflict yesterday in the northern city of Tripoli, where running battles between the Lebanese army and a radical new Palestinian organization said to have ties to al-Qaida killed at least 39 people. In the worst internal fighting since the end of Lebanon's civil war 17 years ago, the army battled militants throughout the day in the streets of the port city and on the edges of the Palestinian refugee camp Nahr el-Bared, which late last year fell under the control of a radical group calling itself Fateh al-Islam.