(4 Jun 2007)
Mount Lebanon
1. Various of funeral procession for Lebanese soldier
2. Mid of the father of the soldier crying
3. Various aerial shots of funeral procession
Ein el-Hilweh refugee camp
4. Wide of Sidon municipality, Palestinian refugees sitting on sidewalk
5. Mid of children playing
6. Wide of man in wheelchair
7. Mid of man sitting cross legged with baby on his lap
8. Mid of women waling down street
9. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Mohamad Mansour, Palestinian refugee, Vox Pop:
"We do not know what has happened to our house, maybe it is destroyed, only God knows. We are here and we do not know what is going on inside."
10. Mid of children
11. Wide of family
12. Mid of family sitting on grass
STORYLINE:
A funeral procession for a Lebanese soldier killed in recent clashes in Lebanon's largest Palestinian refugee camp was held in his hometown, Mount Lebanon, on Monday.
He was one of the two Lebanese soldiers who were killed as violence spawned by two-week old confrontation between the Lebanese army and al-Qaida inspired militants spread to Ein el-Hilweh camp, police said on Monday.
Bomb explosions and machine gunfire rocked the camp on Monday after clashes between Lebanese troops and Islamic militants killed two Lebanese soldiers and wounded three, police said.
The fighting began with militants from the group Jund al-Sham firing rocket-propelled grenades and automatic rifle fire on Lebanese troops stationed outside the Ein el-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp.
The fighting had erupted on and off since late Sunday at Ein el-Hilweh, with clashes renewing on Monday morning.
Lebanese troops returned fire during the night time exchanges on the edge of the camp.
There was no official word on militant casualties from the fighting, which sent dozens of families from the camp - a small town of winding, narrow streets with its own schools, clinics and markets - fleeing to Sidon.
A senior Fatah Islam commander on Monday pledged to spread the militant's group battle with the Lebanese army to the already embattled Ein el-Hilweh.
"Soon there will be an official statement in the name of Fatah Islam partisans, and we will start to see an expansion (to the fighting in the north) and there will be a similar military situation there (in Ein el-Hilweh)," said Abu Hureira, Fatah Islam's deputy commander.
He spoke to The Associated Press a few hours after the clashes erupted, in which the two soldiers were killed.
Abu Hureira, whose real name is Shehab al-Qaddour, is holed up in the Palestinian refugee camp of Nahr el-Bared in the north along with other Fatah Islam gunmen fighting off an army onslaught now in its fourth day.
Fatah Islam's fight with the army erupted on May 20 at Nahr el-Bared and has so far killed more than 100 people.
He said his group had members in Ein el-Hilweh but refused to say how many. He added that the firing on the army that Jund al-Sham carried out was of their own initiative and that the two groups had limited contacts.
Abu Hureira again denied repeated media reports that he had been wounded and said his men's morale was high.
He attributed a decrease in the intensity of fighting in Nahr el-Bared on Monday to what he described as the army's "failure" to advance against Fatah Islam position in the camp.
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