Meeting of security chiefs confirms deaths of Fatah Islam leaders

Описание: (20 May 2007)
++NIGHT SHOTS++
1. Exterior of Prime Minister's office building
2. Wide of meeting
3. Mid shot of Fouad Saniora
4. Mid shot of Army commander Michel Suleiman and the Secretary General of the High Defence Council, Said Eid
5. Wide of meeting
6. Mid of internal security forces commander Ashraf Reefi
7. Various of meeting
8. Wide of Information Minister Gazi Al-Aridi briefing
9. SOUNDBITE: (Arabic) Gazi Al-Aridi, Information Minister:
"Yes there are casualties within the group (Fatah Al-Islam) and some of them are highly ranked in the organisation.There are around ten killed and there are prisoners. Some of them are not Lebanese and when we have a full picture we will announce everything."
10. Cutaway
11. SOUNDBITE: (Arabic) Gazi Al-Aridi, Information Minister:
"The decision is clear. There are security procedures underway.The army commander and security officials briefed us about those procedures because hunting those cells down will continue. We had casualties. We will continue and those cells were also hit."
12. Wide of briefing
STORYLINE:
The Lebanese government vowed on Sunday evening to continue its security crackdown on members of the militant Fatah Islam group, following a day of street battles and heavy shelling in northern Lebanon.
While security forces were able to quell resistance in Tripoli after sundown it was unclear if the army would storm the nearby Nahr el-Bared Palestinian refugee camp which, like other refugee camps, is off-limits to state authority.
The camp is a refuge for members of Fatah Islam.
Gazi Al-Aridi, Lebanon's Information Minister, said heavy shelling of the camp earlier in the day had led to the death of several senior members of the group.
"Yes there are casualties within the group and some of them are highly ranked in the organisation.There are around ten killed and there are prisoners. Some of them are not Lebanese and when we have a full picture we will announce everything," he told reporters.
One senior Lebanese security official, speaking on condition of anonymity, named one of the high-ranking members of Fatah Islam believed to have been killed as Abu Yazan.
Sunday's clashes began after a gunbattle raged in Tripoli, a predominantly Sunni city known to be home to several Islamic fundamentalists, and spread after troops and police raided alleged Fatah Islam hideouts in search of men wanted in a recent bank robbery.
Militants burst out of the Palestinian camp in response, seizing Lebanese army positions, capturing two armoured vehicles and ambushing troops, killing two soldiers on roads leading to the port city.
Security officials said 22 soldiers were killed, and 19 soldiers and 14 police officers were injured in the fighting - the worst violence to hit Tripoli in two decades.
They said ten militants were killed when authorities stormed several buildings they were holed up in Tripoli, and seven more were killed in the refugee camp.
Security officials said the militants had worn explosive belts but did not have time to detonate them.

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