Lebanese Troops Battle Islamist Savages

No doubt the friends of Nancy Pelosi have a hand in this.

At least 19 people were killed in fierce gunbattles that erupted in Lebanon on Sunday between soldiers and fighters from a shadowy Islamic extremist group accused of links to Al-Qaeda.

Lebanese troops launched an assault on a building in Tripoli where militants from
Fatah al-Islam were holed up after a morning of deadly shootouts in the northern port city and and a nearby Palestinian refugee camp.

An army spokesman said 11 soldiers had lost their lives in the fighting -- the deadliest such clashes for seven years -- while seven gunmen were reported killed along with a civilian who was caught in the crossfire when troops attacked the building in Tripoli.

Lebanon sent in troop reinforcements to contain the battles which erupted at dawn in Tripoli and around the nearby Palestinian refugee camp of Nahr al-Bared, a Fatah al-Islam stronghold.

Naturally, Pelosi's good friends denied any involvement. We can always trust them, right?

Syria, the former power broker in Lebanon, announced it had closed two border posts into its smaller neighbour because of the violence.

Russia expressed deep concern, saying: "Such an upsurge of violence in an already tense situation in Lebanon gives rise to deep anxiety."

Lebanese authorities have accused Fatah al-Islam, a splinter group said to be ideologically close to Osama bin Laden's network, of working for the Syrian intelligence services.

This report says 21 are dead.

UPDATE: The death toll is now 38.