Lebanese Troops Kill 2 Palestinian Protesters and Wound 30

BEIRUT, Lebanon, June 29 — Lebanese Army troops opened fire on Friday at Palestinian demonstrators trying to march back to their besieged refugee camp in northern Lebanon, killing two and wounding at least 30 others, Palestinian officials and witnesses said.

The state-run national news agency said the army first fired into the air to disperse the crowd trying to return to the Nahr al Bared refugee camp, in which militants from the Fatah al Islam group have been fighting the Lebanese Army for six weeks. But when angry protesters carrying batons and knives tried to cross an army checkpoint, the troops opened fire at them, the agency said.

The agency added that Lebanese civilians interfered to support the army, engaging in fistfights with the Palestinians.

The Lebanese Army said in a statement that “a group of Palestinian protesters carrying batons and sharp tools and who presented a direct threat to the safety of the troops tried to cross an army checkpoint, disregarding warning shots in the air.”

The confrontation outside the Beddawi camp, home to thousands of displaced Palestinian refugees from the nearby Nahr al Bared camp, is likely to increase tensions between some Lebanese and the Palestinians who live in Lebanon’s other refugee camps. The episode, outside Tripoli, might also complicate the army’s attempts to crush the militants and efforts by Palestinian and Lebanese mediators to end the fighting.

Abbas Zaki, the Palestine Liberation Organization’s representative in Lebanon, accused “anarchic elements of provoking these incidents by infiltrating a peaceful demonstration.” Some in the crowd had wanted to protest the military stalemate at Nahr al Bared, but others wanted to try to enter the camp to go home.

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“We will give the army the time and chance to complete their mission,” Mr. Zaki said.

The protesters started the march from the Beddawi camp, where they have been living in difficult circumstances in schools. Many of these refugees’ houses were leveled, and they fear that if the fighting drags on, they will be forced to relocate permanently to other camps.

The United Nations refugee agency said it would set up prefabricated houses outside the Beddawi camp for Nahr al Bared residents, but the refugees opposed that step because they feared they would never be allowed to return home.

“People fear they will never be able to return to the camp because of the level of destruction. They live here in hard conditions, sometimes 50 or 60 in one classroom, and wait in long lines to use bathrooms,” said Abu Jihad, an official from the mainstream group Fatah, who spoke by telephone from his home in the Beddawi camp. “They want to go home, to their camp.”

Demonstrations were also staged in other camps in Beirut and the south, but no violence was reported.

The Lebanese Army said Fatah al Islam snipers killed two soldiers in fighting on Friday, raising the death toll to at least 204 since the start of the fighting with the militants. At least 86 soldiers, 75 militants and 43 civilians have now been killed in the fighting in north Lebanon.

Bush Bans Some Syrian Officials

KENNEBUNKPORT, Me., June 29 (Reuters) — President Bush on Friday banned Syrian and Lebanese officials whom Washington accuses of undermining the Lebanese government from entering the United States, the White House said.

The Syrian officials the United States considers to have meddled in Lebanon includes Assef Shawkat, Syria’s director of military intelligence; Hisham Ikhtiyar, adviser to President Bashar al-Assad; and Brig. Gen. Jama’a Jama’a. The move followed calls for Syria to stop fomenting instability in Lebanon.