BEIRUT, March 22, (Reuter): Fighting erupted at a Palestinian refugee camp in Beirut today and two girls, one a Palestinian and one a Shi’ite Moslem, were reported killed. Palestinian sources said a 15yearold girl was killed and five people, including a four year old child, were wounded when Shi’Ite Moslem Amal Militiamen fired antitank recoilless rifles and mortars at the Bourj AlBarajneh settlement.
Amal said a Shi’Ite girl was killed in return fire directed at Shi’Ite neighborhoods.
The violence forced the closure of the main airport road, which runs past Bourja AlBarajneh, for the first time since it was reopened after the Syrian deployment. The airport has been shut since January when insurers withdrew cover for passengers.
Amal sources said the clashes flared when Palestinian guerrillas attempted a sortie from the battered camp’s “Mashnouq” entrance on the airport highway.
Over 7,000 Syrian troops moved into Moslem West Beirut last month. They occupied Beirut airport just south of the city, but did not deploy in the refugee camps or nearby Shi’Ite suburbs.
More than 850 people have been killed since the latest “camps war” started in Beirut and South Lebanon last September.
Article extracted from this publication >> March 27, 1987
