Fight against militants agitates Lebanon's troubled camps

Devastation: A boy played in the rubble of the Shatila refugee camp located in the outskirts of Beirut on Tuesday. Most of the refugee camps in Lebanon have housed generations of Palestinians since Israel declared independence in 1948. Jiro Ose / Special to The Christian Science Monitor

Poverty and hopelessness have helped foster the emergence of radical Islamist groups in Lebanon's 12 Palestinian refugee camps.

By Nicholas Blanford | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor

We share the story behind the story.

NAHR AL-BARED PALESTINIAN REFUGEE CAMP, Lebanon - As battles between the Lebanese Army and Islamic militants from Fatah al-Islam entered a third day, dozens of residents of this embattled Palestinian camp seized a chance Tuesday to flee.

They waved white sheets from cars as snipers still fired at them during a brief cease-fire. "The situation is very miserable," screamed Mouein Safadi as he reached an Army post. "There are many, many people dead under the rubble. We have no water, no food, no electricity."

Ahmad Afif, driving a battered red Renault filled with his family, said the militants "are not Palestinians. They are Syrians, Iraqis, Afghanis. What do they want from us?" continue...