1 killed, 1 hurt in clashes in Lebanese Palestinian refugee camp

[Behind the Aegis]

A Palestinian man was killed and another seriously wounded Monday in clashes in Lebanon's largest refugee camp, officials said.

Mainstream Fatah guerrillas battled members of Jund al-Sham, a small, radical Islamic group in the Ein el-Hilweh refugee camp near the southern port city of Sidon, Palestinian officials said. It was not clear what triggered the fighting, in which heavy machine guns were used.

A Fatah official in the camp, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media, said the fighting began when Jund al-Sham gunmen tried to assassinate Mahmoud Abdul-Hamid Issa, a Fatah military official, as he walked with his bodyguards. One of the bodyguards, Abu Omra al-Aswad, was seriously wounded, the official said.

A bystander, Mohammed Tayssir Awad, 20, was hit by a stray bullet and died instantly, other Palestinian officials in the camp said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not allowed to talk to the media.


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