Beirut_(dpa) _ A Palestinian was injured Saturday when members from his mainstream Fatah movement clashed with followers of the Sunni fundamentalist terrorist group, Jund al-Sham, in southern Lebanon, a Palestinian source said.
The armed clashes erupted in the southern Palestinian refugee camp of Ain al-Hilweh. Heavy machine guns were used in the fighting, which lasted about half an hour, the source said.
Members of a security committee made of various Palestinian factions inside the camp moved to intervene to stop the fighting.
Mounir Maqdah, who commands the main Palestinian police force in Ain al-Hilweh, said the clash was eventually contained, adding that it started when Jund al-Sham members fired at a Fatah office in the camp.
Security inside the Palestinian camps is in the hands of the Palestinian factions, but the Lebanese army has the authority to control all entrances.
There are some 367,000 Palestinian refugees living in 12 camps across Lebanon. Ain el-Hilweh is the largest camp, housing some 75,000 Palestinian refugees.
Jund al-Sham (Soldiers of Greater Syria), is a terrorist group believed to have first appeared in Afghanistan in 1999. The group was established by Syrians and Palestinians with links to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who went on to found al-Qaeda in Iraq and was subsequently killed by a US airstrike in 2006. dpa wh ncs
