At least six people died after fighting broke out in Lebanon’s largest Palestinian refugee camp near the southern port city of Sidon, news agency AP reported on Sunday citing Palestinian officials. According to UNRWA, which is the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, the death stood at six. Meanwhile, two children were among seven people injured at the Ain al-Hilweh camp, as per Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency.
The fighting took place after an unknown gunman tried to kill Islamist militant Mahmoud Khalil and ended up killing his companion instead, the Palestinian officials told AP.
Later, a Palestinian military general from the Fatah group was shot dead by Islamist militants along with three escorts as they were walking through a car park, another Palestinian official told AP. On Sunday, the groups fought with assault rifles, hand grenades, and rocket-propelled grenade launchers, AP reported.
The fighting stopped for several hours in the morning, though state media said sporadic sniper fire remained, but it erupted again after the killing of the Palestinian general and his escorts. The people who were living near the camp in Sidon fled their homes after stray bullets hit buildings and shattered the windows. The patients and staff members were evacuated from the public Sidon general hospital.
The Lebanese army said that one soldier sustained injuries after a mortar shell struck a military barracks outside the camp. The condition of the soldier is stable. Amidst the clashes, Commandos were deployed near the camp’s entrances, as per AP. Condemning the killing of its security official, Fatah stated that the attack was part of a “bloody scheme that targets the security and stability of our camps,” as reported by AP.
In another incident, a powerful blast triggered by a suicide bomber killed at least 44 people and injured nearly 100 others on Sunday at a rally of a hardline Islamic party in a restive tribal district of Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province bordering Afghanistan, as reported by news agency PTI.
Subscribe And Follow ABP Live On Telegram: https://t.me/officialabplive