Lebanon army takes control of camp
Posted by tearsforlebanon on September 2, 2007
By Nazih Siddiq
NAHR AL-BARED, Lebanon (Reuters) – Lebanese troops took control on Sunday of
a Palestinian refugee camp where they had been battling militants for
more than three months, killing at least 31 fighters who tried to flee,
security sources said.
Twenty-three more fighters from the Fatah
al-Islam group were captured, 12 of them wounded militants detained
after the army took over the Nahr al-Bared camp in north Lebanon, a
security source said.
“The battle is over. The Lebanese army has
seized the last positions of Fatah al-Islam in the camp,” a senior
security source told Reuters.
“Most of the terrorists were
killed today. The others have been captured. A few might have escaped
but the army is hunting them down,” the source added.
The fate
of Shaker al-Abssi, the Palestinian leader of the group which says it
shares al Qaeda’s ideology but has no organizational ties to the
network, was unclear.
The fighting has been Lebanon’s worst internal violence since the 1975-1990 civil war, killing more than 300 people.
Five soldiers were also killed on Sunday, raising the army death toll
to 157. At least 131 militants and 42 civilians have been killed.
The army had initially estimated that only 35 active fighters remained in the camp before Sunday.
An army statement said the militants had tried to escape from the camp in the early hours of the morning.
They “attacked army positions in a desperate attempt to flee,” the
statement said, urging citizens to contact the army if they encountered
suspect individuals.
At least three gunmen from outside the camp
had also attacked an army position in order to help the fighters
escape, security sources said. Continued …
Source:Reuters
