Lebanese refugee camp siege broken
The siege is taking place north of Tripoli
Sunday, 02, Sep 2007 08:19
The bloody three-month siege of a Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon is now over, Beirut has said.
The Lebanese army moved in to crush the last pockets of resistance this morning following a "desperate attempt" by the holed-up militants to escape in the early hours.
At least 37 militants from the Fatah al-Islam group are believed to have died in the fighting, while the army sustained five fatalities. It has now lost 158 soldiers in the struggle.
Earlier gunmen from outside the camp attacked checkpoints guarding the perimeter maintained by the Lebanese army, triggering intensive fire from within the camp's walls, according to reports.
When it became clear the attempt had failed the army reportedly launched a full-scale assault to flush out the remaining militants inside the camp.
Shaker al-Abssi, the militants' leader, is believed to have escaped along with a small number of other fighters.
The three-month siege at Nahr al-Bared camp saw Lebanon's worst internal violence since its bloody 15-year civil war which ended in 1990, with over 300 people believed to have died in total.
Having been home to over 45,000 refugees since it was established in 1948, it was been reduced to rubble since the first fighting in May shocked the Middle Eastern country.
Army experts are now searching the camp for booby traps. Eyewitnesses say celebratory gunfire are currently the only shots being fired.