A roadside bomb critically wounded a military commander of the Fatah movement Tuesday, setting off gunbattles at a Palestinian refugee camp that has been torn by factional fighting, Lebanese and Palestinian security officials said.
Talal Sleim was hit while heading to his office in the Ein el-Hilweh camp, on the outskirts of the southern city of Sidon, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to reporters. A bodyguard was also lightly wounded, they said.
After news of the explosion spread, Fatah guerrillas exchanged machine-gun fire with Palestinian gunmen of the Jund al-Sham group, which follows the extremist ideology of al-Qaida.
Dozens of families fled to safer areas outside the shantytown in fear that fighting would escalate between the two factions, witnesses said.
The bombing came 10 days after three Jund al-Sham militants were killed in clashes with Fatah guerrillas in the camp, leading the extremist group to vow revenge.
Among those killed was a Jund al-Sham military commander, Shehadeh Jawhar, who fought American troops in Iraq and was wanted by Lebanese authorities for numerous acts of violence.
Jund al-Sham _ Arabic for Soldiers of al-Sham, an old word for the region of Syria, Lebanon and Jordan _ has repeatedly clashed with Fatah guerrillas and Lebanese troops deployed around Ein el-Hilweh. It has been blamed or claimed responsibility for a number of bombings and gunbattles in Lebanon and Syria.
Ein el-Hilweh, with a population of 70,000, is the largest of Lebanon's 12 Palestinian refugee camps. A hotbed of Islamic extremists, it is notorious for lawlessness and sees frequent gunfights between its various factions.
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