Is Syria Starting A New Civil War In Lebanon?

A huge escalation in the scope of the battle being waged in Lebanon against an al Qaeda aligned group with ties to Iran may signal that something bigger is going on. The Fatah al-Islam group fired about a dozen 107mm katyusha rockets at a Lebanese village well outside the current zone of battle. The Syrian government had told its citizens to be out of Lebanon by this week. Coincidence? That would be highly unlikely.

Security sources said al Qaeda-inspired Fatah al-Islam fighters fired about a dozen of the 107 mm rockets which landed several miles away from the Nahr al-Bared camp in north Lebanon, causing some material damage but no casualties.

They said two Lebanese soldiers died in fresh battles at the camp on Friday. Another soldier wounded in ferocious fighting on Thursday died of his wounds, bringing the military's death toll in the past two days to nine.

Fighting between the army and Islamist militants has killed 216 people since May 20, making it the country's worst internal violence since the 1975-1990 civil war.

The military, concerned about being sucked into a war of attrition, has stepped up pressure on the coastal camp to force the militants to surrender.

But the well-trained and well-armed militants, some of whom fought in Iraq or trained to go to fight there, have so far rejected all calls to surrender.

Witnesses said the army was bombarding the battered camp with artillery and tanks. Militants were responding with sniper and rocket fire. Black and grey smoke billowed from the camp's battered buildings, most of which have been reduced to rubble.

The report concludes with some chilling words: "The violence has further undermined stability in Lebanon, where a paralyzing 8-month political crisis has been compounded by bombings in and around Beirut." With Syrian troops already reported to be inside the border of Lebanon in the Bekaa valley, these are not cheerful words at all.