Fatah Islam Dealt a Blow by Lebanese Army

Via newsone.ca (Taken from AP News) -

BEIRUT, Lebanon - The defense minister said Thursday the Fatah Islam militant group holed up in a northern refugee camp has been defeated after a monthlong military operation, and that only mopping up remained.

The fighting in Nahr el-Bared, Lebanon‘s worst internal violence since the 1975-90 civil war, has claimed the lives of more than 150 people, including 75 soldiers, at least 60 militants and more than 20 civilians. It comes amid a fierce power struggle between Lebanon‘s government and the opposition led by the militant Hezbollah group.

He said "the military operation is over. The Lebanese army has crushed those terrorists."

"What is happening now is some cleanup that the army‘s heroes are carrying out, and dismantling some mines," he said.

He said a "large number" of Fatah Islam leaders have been killed in the fighting, while leader Shaker al-Absi and his deputy, Abu Hureira, and others were on the run, suggesting they were hiding deep inside the camp among the local population.

In a newspaper interview published earlier in the day, Murr vowed to defeat the militants. He also cautioned the country‘s politicians against concluding the Fatah Islam militants have links with Syria, saying it was too early to tell, according to Nahar Ash-Shabab, a weekly supplement of Lebanon‘s leading An-Nahar newspaper.