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Lebanese Brace for Worst: Who Is The Enemy? NewsMax.com Wires TRIPOLI, Lebanon -- Many Lebanese hoped the coming summer months would help erase the painful memories of last year's war between Hezbollah guerrillas and Israel. Instead, the renewed bloody clashes in northern Lebanon have revived memories of something even more sinister - civil war. "This is worse than last year's war because then we knew who the enemy was," said 21-year-old Mostafa Garrah, referring to arch foe Israel. "Now we don't know who the enemy is." At least 71 people, including 24 civilians, have been killed in two days of fighting between the army and al Qaeda-inspired militants in the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp and Tripoli, making it Lebanon's worst internal violence since the 1975-1990 civil war. "I am not only scared. I'm astounded. I'm afraid this is only the beginning of something bigger, another civil war," said Asaad Taleb, 48, at a nearby petrol station on a road leading up to the camp where Lebanese troops engaged the Fatah al-Islam fighters in intense battles. "History is just repeating itself. I think we are going towards damnation," he said. Further up the road, Lebanese troops perched on a tank hidden among trees and poured automatic rifle fire into the grey concrete buildings of the camp. Lebanese army tanks pounded the coastal camp, where the Sunni Muslim faction, which is known to include Lebanese, Syrians and Palestinians, also kept up a barrage of gun fire. Story Continues Below
Dozens of onlookers gathered at a nearby store to watch the onslaught on the camp, home to 40,000 Palestinian refugees. The constant crack of gunfire followed by a torrent of grenades and the black smoke billowing from the bare, cramped buildings by the Mediterranean failed to faze them. "My heart tells me not to be scared, if the army gave me a weapon, I'd go fight too," said Eissa al-Ghezzawy, 18, over the deafening rattles of artillery shelling. In Tripoli, Lebanon's second largest city and about a 10 minute drive from the camp, Lebanese ventured onto the streets, absorbing the sight of shattered glass and bullet-riddled homes from Sunday's clashes in which troops stormed buildings where militants were holed up. An uneasy mood permeated the city, known for its bustling port and nearby beach resorts. Hastily set up checkpoints choked main roads as Lebanese troops conducted random body searches and newly positioned tanks parked on roadsides. "In last year's war, we were scared but it was an easier war because we were fighting a known enemy. If a war blows up here, it means the army is fighting people from its lands," said Fatima Hammoud, a 28-year-old employee at a baby store in Tripoli. "The fires will just keep on burning." Mohammed Ali, a lawyer in Tripoli said the clashes created "sadness and depression, and fear of the future". "This ... will just drag us to catastrophes. In the last war, it was a matter of self-defense, now this is just fighting amongst ourselves."
© Reuters 2007. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by caching, framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Editor's note: Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
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