Refugee Camp

GAZA CITY -- Israeli tanks pulled out of the Maghazi refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip yesterday and withdrew to Israeli territory, ending a two-day incursion that left at least 15 Palestinians dead. Sporadic shelling continued in the north section of the Gaza Strip. Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniya condemned Israel and the U.S. in a sermon before Friday prayers, his most extensive public comments for more than two weeks. Haniya called the Israeli military offensives in Gaza and Lebanon an attempt to establish regional dominance under the pretext of rescuing kidnapped soldiers.

- As the small plane entered the pattern to land at this town on the eastern edge of Kenya, the view from the window was of miles and miles of scrubby landscape, low trees and bushes almost the same brown color as the sandy earth beneath them. Hardly noticeable were the small buildings and many tents that have put this place on the international map. They were covered with the ubiquitous brown dust that would soon blow in my face as I stepped onto the tarmac. Dadaab has become host to one of the largest refugee populations in the world.

BYUMBA, Rwanda -- Augustine Kabano's training was supposed to help him confront life and death, but nothing in his medical schooling prepared him for this."

St. Mary's City -- Nezia Munezero and her 10-member family spent years running from one East African refugee camp to another, staying one step ahead of death in a world torn by ethnic warfare and genocide. In 2002, they were resettled in Baltimore. At age 16 and with no knowledge of English, she enrolled at the now-shuttered Southwestern High School and lived in a grim neighborhood beset by urban crime. It was a stepping-stone to a better life, but also another place to flee. "Students at Southwestern weren't friendly toward immigrants," said Munezero, 22, a slight woman with a lilting accent.

AIN AL-HILWEH, Lebanon -- Islamic militants attacked an army checkpoint yesterday in the south near the country's largest Palestinian refugee camp, raising fears that a second front has opened between the Lebanese army and al-Qaida-inspired militants. Thousands of soldiers are deployed in the northern part of the country, fiercely battling a few hundred fighters who are holed up in a Palestinian refugee camp there. Fighters from the Jund al-Sham group attacked the checkpoint at the entrance to the Ain al-Hilweh camp, using rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns.

NAHR EL-BARED, Lebanon -- An Islamist militant group holed up in a Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon will fight to the death, a spokesman said yesterday, adding that newly arrived military aid from the United States and other countries to the Lebanese army don't faze the fighters. Abu Salim, the spokesman for Fatah al-Islam, told McClatchy Newspapers in a phone interview that surrender was not an option and that fighters were ready for the next stage of battle with the Lebanese troops surrounding them in the olive groves, citrus orchards and a commercial strip just outside the Nahr el-Bared camp.

TRIPOLI, Lebanon -- Heavy shelling and gunfire continued for the second day at the Nahr al Bared refugee camp, as the Lebanese army intensified its offensive against the Fatah al Islam militia. Three soldiers were killed and 15 were wounded in the fighting by yesterday afternoon, the army reported, raising the number of the army's deaths from the two-day offensive to six. Dozens of militants from Fatah al Islam, an al-Qaida-inspired group, have also been killed or wounded, the army said.

JERUSALEM - More than 30 Israeli tanks and armored personnel carriers roared into the southern Gaza Strip in a major raid directed at Palestinian militants, witnesses and the Israeli army said. At least five Palestinians were killed - including a 15-year-old boy - and more than 35 injured in heavy exchanges of fire during the operation, which began last night and continued into early today. Earlier yesterday in the West Bank, a Palestinian cameraman filming violence in Nablus was shot dead by an Israeli soldier.

JERUSALEM - In a series of military strikes in the West Bank and Gaza Strip yesterday, Israeli forces killed seven Palestinians and blocked more than 1,000 Palestinian men and boys from returning home for a second day as they scoured a refugee camp for wanted men. Sending up clouds of dust on the outskirts of east Jerusalem, Israeli authorities used jackhammers and backhoes to crush more than a dozen Palestinian homes and other buildings that they said...

NAHR EL-BARED, Lebanon -- Government troops stormed positions held by al-Qaida-linked militants on the outskirts of this refugee camp in northern Lebanon yesterday, in some of the fiercest fighting in two weeks. At least 14 people, including two soldiers, were killed, according to security officials, who also said Lebanese forces moved against outlying paramilitary bases used by Fatah al-Islam militants without entering the camp itself. "Elite forces were able to take over a number of key posts that were used by snipers from group on the northern and eastern outskirts of the camp," a senior army official said on condition of anonymity.

Iftin Iftin dodges through the crowded halls of Patterson High School. In low-slung khaki pants and black-and-white sneakers, a backpack thrown over his shoulder, the slight senior blends in as students pass by him, slapping his hand. "Iftin, wassup?" says one student. The 21-year-old flashes a smile, nodding his head in recognition. "What's up?" the Somali Bantu refugee responds, his strong African accent belying his appearance. A small black pin reading "Amini" is on his powder-blue shirt.

BEIRUT, Lebanon -- Fierce clashes between government forces and Islamic militants left at least six soldiers dead yesterday as Lebanon marked the first anniversary of the summer war that stretched the country to the breaking point. The Lebanese army fired artillery and tank shells into the Nahr el Bared refugee camp near the northern coastal city of Tripoli. A well-armed Islamic militant group called Fatah al Islam, which shares the ideology of al-Qaida, has quartered itself in the camp that was home to 40,000 Palestinian refugees before the fighting started May 20. Television footage showed thick plumes of black smoke rising from the camp, which has been the scene of occasionally fierce fighting since the conflict broke out. "It's the fireworks," Mustapha Abou Harb, a spokesman for the Palestinian group Fatah, said in a phone conversation, explosions erupting in the background.

AIN AL-HILWEH, Lebanon -- Islamic militants attacked an army checkpoint yesterday in the south near the country's largest Palestinian refugee camp, raising fears that a second front has opened between the Lebanese army and al-Qaida-inspired militants. Thousands of soldiers are deployed in the northern part of the country, fiercely battling a few hundred fighters who are holed up in a Palestinian refugee camp there. Fighters from the Jund al-Sham group attacked the checkpoint at the entrance to the Ain al-Hilweh camp, using rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns.

TRIPOLI, Lebanon -- Heavy shelling and gunfire continued for the second day at the Nahr al Bared refugee camp, as the Lebanese army intensified its offensive against the Fatah al Islam militia. Three soldiers were killed and 15 were wounded in the fighting by yesterday afternoon, the army reported, raising the number of the army's deaths from the two-day offensive to six. Dozens of militants from Fatah al Islam, an al-Qaida-inspired group, have also been killed or wounded, the army said.

NAHR EL-BARED, Lebanon -- Government troops stormed positions held by al-Qaida-linked militants on the outskirts of this refugee camp in northern Lebanon yesterday, in some of the fiercest fighting in two weeks. At least 14 people, including two soldiers, were killed, according to security officials, who also said Lebanese forces moved against outlying paramilitary bases used by Fatah al-Islam militants without entering the camp itself. "Elite forces were able to take over a number of key posts that were used by snipers from group on the northern and eastern outskirts of the camp," a senior army official said on condition of anonymity.

NAHR EL-BARED, Lebanon -- An Islamist militant group holed up in a Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon will fight to the death, a spokesman said yesterday, adding that newly arrived military aid from the United States and other countries to the Lebanese army don't faze the fighters. Abu Salim, the spokesman for Fatah al-Islam, told McClatchy Newspapers in a phone interview that surrender was not an option and that fighters were ready for the next stage of battle with the Lebanese troops surrounding them in the olive groves, citrus orchards and a commercial strip just outside the Nahr el-Bared camp.

JENIN REFUGEE CAMP, West Bank - The man had died sitting, or so it seemed. The body of the Palestinian sat against a pile of concrete blocks yesterday, the corpse perched on a cascading field of rubble that had once been the walls and furnishings of homes. His head was slumped. His left hand rested on a partially outstretched leg. His green fatigues were caked with dirt, and a streak of blood lined his forehead. Flies buzzed around his head; he had been there for days. Bullet cartridges were scattered near his hiking boots.

BEIRUT, Lebanon -- Fierce clashes between government forces and Islamic militants left at least six soldiers dead yesterday as Lebanon marked the first anniversary of the summer war that stretched the country to the breaking point. The Lebanese army fired artillery and tank shells into the Nahr el Bared refugee camp near the northern coastal city of Tripoli. A well-armed Islamic militant group called Fatah al Islam, which shares the ideology of al-Qaida, has quartered itself in the camp that was home to 40,000 Palestinian refugees before the fighting started May 20. Television footage showed thick plumes of black smoke rising from the camp, which has been the scene of occasionally fierce fighting since the conflict broke out. "It's the fireworks," Mustapha Abou Harb, a spokesman for the Palestinian group Fatah, said in a phone conversation, explosions erupting in the background.

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.

NAHR EL-BARED, Lebanon -- The Lebanese army unleashed a torrent of firepower yesterday on a Palestinian refugee camp that is home to a militant group loyal to al-Qaida, amid fears that the two-day-old conflict could spread and undermine a government already beset by political schism. The fighting has claimed at least 50 lives and was the worst internal conflict since Lebanon's 15-year civil war ended in 1990. Fighting erupted in another Palestinian refugee camp in the south, and a bomb exploded in an upscale Sunni Muslim neighborhood in the capital, injuring six people.