Fatah Official Killed in Sidon Car Bomb Blast

A senior Palestinian official with the mainstream Fatah Movement was killed on Tuesday in a car bombing in the southern city of Sidon.

Reports said that Fathi Zaidan died and four others, including two bodyguards, were injured in the blast near Ain el-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp.

Zaidan, who goes by the nom de guerre of Zoro, is the security official with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah group in Mieh Mieh camp.

The Internal Security Forces drew a tight dragnet and asked people to distance themselves from the blast scene to pave way for ambulances to transport the wounded.

The army's forensics unit later arrived at the scene of the explosion and cleared away scorched body parts lying near a car in flames, said an Agence France Presse correspondent at the scene.

Ziadan's body parts were taken to al-Hamshari and Sidon state hospitals, said the state-run National News Agency.

The head of the joint Palestinian security force in Lebanon Mounir al-Maqdah told LBCI TV that before the blast, Zaidan attended a meeting in Mieh Mieh during which he asked for increased security measures at the camp.

Fatah gunmen have recently clashed with Islamic extremists in Ain el-Hilweh, the largest of 12 refugee camps in Lebanon.

Ain el-Hilweh has become the scene of score-settling between several factions, and a breeding ground for extremist groups that have flourished on the back of the poverty afflicting the camp.

Lebanon is home to some 400,000 Palestinians.

G.K.

M.T.