In the latest development in the conflict between the Lebanese military and the Fateh al-Islam group in northern Lebanon, the US government has shipped several planeloads of weapons to the Lebanese military. The Lebanese military has been accused of indiscriminately attacking Palestinian refugees in its bombardment of the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp over the last week.
The bombardment of the refugee camp is the Lebanese military’s attempt to destroy the Fateh al-Islam group, a non-Palestinian group of political Islamist Sunnis that took refuge in the camp after carrying out bomb attacks in Beirut.
US journalist Seymour Hersh wrote several months ago, in an ironic twist to the conflict, that the US was at that time funding and arming the opposite side of the conflict, the Sunni Fateh al-Islam fighters, in an attempt to instigate in-fighting between Sunnis and the mainly Shi’a Hezbollah resistance group.
The weapons being sent in the current shipment from the US to the Lebanese government are said to include automatic rifle ammunition, spare parts for military helicopters, and night vision goggles, according to BBC reports.
Gordon Johndroe, spokesman for the White House National Security Council, told Reuters News Agency, "The United States has existing agreements to provide (military) assistance to Lebanon. Under those agreements we are expediting the delivery of supplies."
