2007年VOA标准英语-Renewed Fighting Rages Around Palestinian Camp

By Challiss McDonough
Cairo
21 May 2007

Fighting between the Lebanese army and Islamic extremists has been raging around a Palestinian refugee camp in north Lebanon. The death toll¹ has climbed to more than 50 since the gunbattles started Sunday. VOA Correspondent Challiss McDonough has more from our Middle East bureau in Cairo.

Smoke billows from Nahr al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp in north Lebanon, 21 May 2007

The sound of intense automatic gunfire and exploding artillery² shells could be heard from several kilometers away as renewed fighting erupted around the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp near Tripoli. Huge plumes³ of black smoke were rising from the camp as the battle raged on.

The fighting between the Lebanese army and Fatah al-Islam militants⁵ began early Sunday and has intensified⁶ dramatically. The army sent in hundreds of reinforcements, and tanks pounded the camp with artillery shells.

A spokesman for the Sunni militant⁴ group told Western news agencies that they would expand the battle outside Tripoli if the army did not stop bombardment of its stronghold.

Reports from inside Nahr al-Bared said camp residents were taking shelter in their homes as the fighting raged on.

[Meanwhile, an explosion has rocked a Muslim neighborhood in Lebanon's capital, as Lebanese troops and Islamic militants continue to fight fierce battles at a Palestinian refugee camp to the north.

Television footage showed widespread damage late Monday in the Muslim district of Verdun in western Beirut. Witnesses say the blast set cars ablaze⁷ and damaged buildings.

 

Police say at least six people were wounded.

On Sunday, an explosion in a Christian⁸ sector⁹ of Beirut killed one person and wounded at least 10 others.]

It is not clear how many civilians¹⁰ have been caught in the crossfire¹¹. A brief cease-fire was called to allow ambulances to reach some wounded people, but it quickly came to an end as fighting flared¹² again.

Sami Baroudi is a political science professor at the American University in Beirut. He says for months there have been concerns about Lebanon's fragile security situation and reports that extremist groups have been arming themselves and infiltrating¹³ the area.

"Somehow we were expecting something like this to happen, but not at all at this scale," he said. "I think even the army, the intelligence, have been really surprised by the scale of it, by the extent of the coordination¹⁴. So while clearly this is the work of a terrorist group, I think everybody underestimated how much it could do in one blow."

Smoke is seen above Palestinian refugee camp of Nahr Al-Bared near Tripoli in northern Lebanon, 21 May 2007

This is the worst outbreak of internal violence since the end of Lebanon's civil war.

It comes at a time when, most analysts¹⁵ say, the Lebanese government is extremely weak. Politics have been deadlocked¹⁶ for six months over a proposed international court to try suspects in the 2005 assassination¹⁷ of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. Several Lebanese cabinet ministers have said they believe Fatah al-Islam is trying to derail the court on behalf of Syria, which opposes it.

The government has previously¹⁸ leveled that same allegation at Lebanese political opposition¹⁹ parties, led by the armed Shiite group Hezbollah.

The 12 Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon have been off-limits to Lebanese authorities since 1969 under an agreement with Palestinian leaders. That has created a security vacuum in the camps, which has been exploited by a growing number of extremist groups.

Baroudi says Palestinians living in the camps - and their Lebanese neighbors - have been ripe for recruitment.

Given the overall situation among the Palestinians, if you deal with one fundamentalist group, then in a couple of months it will reappear under a different name, there will be other groups as long as you have thousands of Palestinians who are armed, in camps, who do not have much hope of returning to Palestine, who are heavily ideologized...," he said. "So given the socio-economic political conditions in and surrounding the camps, they are really fertile grounds for the appearance of groups like Fatah al-Islam and dozens of other movements.

The Lebanese government has accused Fatah al-Islam of having ties to both al-Qaida and the Syrian intelligence service. Syria is denying any connection to the group, and Fatah al-Islam denies that it is serving any country's agenda.

The group's leader, Shakir al-Abssi, was apparently²⁰ released from a Syrian prison last year before moving to Lebanon and setting up the group's base in the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp.

Abssi and the Jordanian-born al-Qaida militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi were both convicted in absentia in Jordan last year and sentenced to death for the 2002 murder of a U.S. diplomat²¹.

1 toll   

n.过路(桥)费；损失，伤亡人数；v.敲(钟)

参考例句：

• The hailstone took a heavy toll of the crops in our village last night.昨晚那场冰雹损坏了我们村的庄稼。
• The war took a heavy toll of human life.这次战争夺去了许多人的生命。

2 artillery   

n.(军)火炮，大炮；炮兵(部队)

参考例句：

• This is a heavy artillery piece.这是一门重炮。
• The artillery has more firepower than the infantry.炮兵火力比步兵大。

3 plumes   

羽毛( plume的名词复数 )； 羽毛饰； 羽毛状物； 升上空中的羽状物

参考例句：

• The dancer wore a headdress of pink ostrich plumes. 那位舞蹈演员戴着粉色鸵鸟毛制作的头饰。
• The plumes on her bonnet barely moved as she nodded. 她点点头，那帽子的羽毛在一个劲儿颤动。

4 militant   

adj.激进的，好斗的；n.激进分子，斗士

参考例句：

• Some militant leaders want to merge with white radicals.一些好斗的领导人要和白人中的激进派联合。
• He is a militant in the movement.他在那次运动中是个激进人物。

5 militants   

激进分子，好斗分子( militant的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The militants have been sporadically fighting the government for years. 几年来，反叛分子一直对政府实施零星的战斗。
• Despite the onslaught, Palestinian militants managed to fire off rockets. 尽管如此，巴勒斯坦的激进分子仍然发射导弹。

6 intensified   

v.（使）增强， （使）加剧( intensify的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Violence intensified during the night. 在夜间暴力活动加剧了。
• The drought has intensified. 旱情加剧了。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 ablaze   

adj.着火的，燃烧的；闪耀的，灯火辉煌的

参考例句：

• The main street was ablaze with lights in the evening.晚上，那条主要街道灯火辉煌。
• Forests are sometimes set ablaze by lightning.森林有时因雷击而起火。

8 Christian   

adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒

参考例句：

• They always addressed each other by their Christian name.他们总是以教名互相称呼。
• His mother is a sincere Christian.他母亲是个虔诚的基督教徒。

9 sector   

n.部门，部分；防御地段，防区；扇形

参考例句：

• The export sector will aid the economic recovery. 出口产业将促进经济复苏。
• The enemy have attacked the British sector.敌人已进攻英国防区。

10 civilians   

平民，百姓( civilian的名词复数 )； 老百姓

参考例句：

• the bloody massacre of innocent civilians 对无辜平民的血腥屠杀
• At least 300 civilians are unaccounted for after the bombing raids. 遭轰炸袭击之后，至少有300名平民下落不明。

11 crossfire   

n.被卷进争端

参考例句：

• They say they are caught in the crossfire between the education establishment and the government.他们称自己被卷进了教育机构与政府之间的争端。
• When two industrial giants clash,small companies can get caught in the crossfire.两大工业企业争斗之下，小公司遭受池鱼之殃。

12 Flared   

adj. 端部张开的, 爆发的, 加宽的, 漏斗式的 动词flare的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• The match flared and went out. 火柴闪亮了一下就熄了。
• The fire flared up when we thought it was out. 我们以为火已经熄灭，但它突然又燃烧起来。

13 infiltrating   

v.（使）渗透，（指思想）渗入人的心中( infiltrate的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• Be vigilant against the danger of enemy agents infiltrating the government and boring from within. 要警惕敌特渗入政府内部进行暗中破坏。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• The metastatic melanoma is seen here to be infiltrating into the myocardium. 图示转移性黑色素瘤浸润到心肌。 来自互联网

14 coordination   

n.协调，协作

参考例句：

• Gymnastics is a sport that requires a considerable level of coordination.体操是一项需要高协调性的运动。
• The perfect coordination of the dancers and singers added a rhythmic charm to the performance.舞蹈演员和歌手们配合得很好，使演出更具魅力。

15 analysts   

分析家，化验员( analyst的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• City analysts forecast huge profits this year. 伦敦金融分析家预测今年的利润非常丰厚。
• I was impressed by the high calibre of the researchers and analysts. 研究人员和分析人员的高素质给我留下了深刻印象。

16 deadlocked   

陷入僵局的；僵持不下的

参考例句：

• The plan deadlocked over the funds. 这个计划由于经费问题而搁浅了。
• The meeting deadlocked over the wage issue. 会议因工资问题而停顿下来。

17 assassination   

n.暗杀；暗杀事件

参考例句：

• The assassination of the president brought matters to a head.总统遭暗杀使事态到了严重关头。
• Lincoln's assassination in 1865 shocked the whole nation.1865年，林肯遇刺事件震惊全美国。

18 previously   

adv.以前，先前（地）

参考例句：

• The bicycle tyre blew out at a previously damaged point.自行车胎在以前损坏过的地方又爆开了。
• Let me digress for a moment and explain what had happened previously.让我岔开一会儿，解释原先发生了什么。

19 opposition   

n.反对，敌对

参考例句：

• The party leader is facing opposition in his own backyard.该党领袖在自己的党內遇到了反对。
• The police tried to break down the prisoner's opposition.警察设法制住了那个囚犯的反抗。

20 apparently   

adv.显然地；表面上，似乎

参考例句：

• An apparently blind alley leads suddenly into an open space.山穷水尽，豁然开朗。
• He was apparently much surprised at the news.他对那个消息显然感到十分惊异。

21 diplomat   

n.外交官，外交家；能交际的人，圆滑的人

参考例句：

• The diplomat threw in a joke, and the tension was instantly relieved.那位外交官插进一个笑话，紧张的气氛顿时缓和下来。
• He served as a diplomat in Russia before the war.战前他在俄罗斯当外交官。