BEIRUT (AP)--Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah on Friday warned the Lebanese government against storming a Palestinian refugee camp and criticized U.S. weapons aid to the military.Nasrallah warned that Lebanon risked getting dragged into the U.S. war against al-Qaida, which he said would draw more Islamic militants into the country and potentially destabilize it.

"The problem in the north can be solved politically and through the judiciary in a way that protects the Lebanese army, our Palestinian brothers, the state and peace and stability without transforming Lebanon into a battleground in which we fight al-Qaida on behalf of the Americans," he said in a televised address.It was the first comment by the powerful opposition leader on the military's standoff with the Fatah Islam militant group, holed up in the Nahr el-Bared refugee camp in northern Lebanon.

Hezbollah also views Sunni extremists like Fatah Islam as enemies. Fatah Islam's leader says he embraces al-Qaida's "jihad" or holy war, though he denies any connection to the terror network. Nasrallah said the Fatah Islam fighters who attacked the military should be brought to justice. But he said Hezbollah opposed any military incursion into the camp to crush the militants

By SCHEHEREZADE FARAMARZI,  Aley, Lebanon -- A bomb exploded in one of Lebanon's most important mountain resorts late Wednesday, wounding at least five people, police said.

The blast rocked the Druze town of Aley around 9 p.m. and was heard as far as Beirut's Mediterranean coastline about 12 miles to the west.Police said the bomb was hidden in a bag and placed at the entrance of a building in a narrow street about 200 yards from the main government building in town. Ambulances and police rushed to the area minutes after the blast, which had also caused considerable material damage.

The explosion sheared off walls of apartments, tore down electrical cables and wrecked parked vehicles. It also blew off shutters on the many shops in the street. Aley is popular with Arab tourists from the oil-rich Gulf who usually begin arriving in June to spend the summer in Lebanon.

Residents of the area are known to be loyal to Druse anti-Syrian leader Walid Jumblatt who had warned Tuesday of stepped-up violence and explosions across Lebanon.Two explosions on Sunday and Monday killed a woman and injured a dozen people in two neighborhoods of Beirut, as the Lebanese army battled militants holed up in a refugee camp near the northern port city of Tripoli.

Beirut and surrounding suburbs have been hit by a series of explosions in the last two years, particularly targeting Christian areas. The U.S.-backed government has blamed the attacks on Syria.Sunday's explosion occurred across from a major shopping center shortly before midnight in Ashrafieh, an upscale neighborhood of the Christian sector of the Lebanese capital. A 63-year-old woman was killed and 12 others injured.

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DAY 4 - May 23rd

BEIRUT (AFP) by Nayla Razzouk - Lebanon told Islamic militants holed up in a Palestinian refugee camp on Wednesday to surrender or else, as a bomb wounded five people outside the capital and a militant was shot dead in the northern city of Tripoli.

The ultimatum followed three days of fierce fighting between the army and terrorist groups. "The army will not negotiate with Fatah al-Islam, which has two choices: either surrender or the army will take the military option," Defence Minister Elias Murr said in an interview on Arabic satellite channel Al-Arabiya.

"The army has made its military preparations, which I will not disclose," said the minister without mentioning any deadline.He spoke as thousands of refugees streamed out of the battered Nahr al-Bared camp near Tripoli.Wednesday night's explosion rocked the predominantly Druze town of Aley east of the capital, wounding five people, a security official said.It was the third blast in the Beirut area in four days. The first in the Christian district of Ashrafiyeh on Sunday night killed one woman. The second was in Verdun, a predominately Sunni Muslim quarter, and wounded 10 people.

Wednesday, 23 May 2007

 A shaky truce in the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp that began on 4:30 p.m. Tuesday was still in place late in the day, following a morning of sporadic shelling of militant positions by the Lebanese army. The army insisted that it had not targeted civilians in its fight with Fatah al-Islam militants inside the camp and had only responded to hostile fire.

Civilians evacuated from the camp said that  Fatah al islam fighters had fired at army positions from the rooftops buildings in the camp.

The army reported no casualties in its ranks on Tuesday, after 31 soldiers were killed in the first two days of fighting and 55 were wounded.

While no verifiable tally of civilian casualties inside the camp was available, various sources within Nahr al-Bared said that dozens had died and at least 100 had been wounded.

The army reported Monday that 25 militants had been killed in the fighting. United Nations workers said that three residents were killed while attempting to collect supplies from relief trucks early Tuesday afternoon.

Soldiers are thoroughly searching all cars moving in the vicinity of the camp, a commander at the site said