Free Republic

Lebanon's chief prosecutor is seeking the death penalty for the fugitive Palestinian chief of an Islamist group over a twin bus bombing a year ago that killed three people, his office said on Tuesday. Prosecutor Said Mirza has accused Shaker al-Abssi, leader of the Fatah al-Islam group which fought a 15-week battle against the army in a Palestinian refugee camp during 2007, of "incitement to murder," over the attack. He is seeking the same penalty for another three Syrian activists of the Al-Qaeda inspired Fatah al-Islam who are accused of launching the February 13, 2007 attack in the mountain village...

BEIRUT, Lebanon - A Lebanese military prosecutor issued arrest warrants Tuesday accusing 10 jailed al-Qaida suspects of planning to carry out terrorist attacks, possessing illegal weapons and using forged identity cards, judicial officials said. Military prosecutor Rashid Mizher also issued arrest warrants naming 10 other suspected al-Qaida members who are at large, the officials added. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media, did not say when the 10 suspects were detained or give their nationalities. Since last year's three-month battle between the Lebanese army and Muslim extremists in the...

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanon said on Tuesday its army killed at least 222 Islamist militants from an al Qaeda-linked group in a 15-week battle at a Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon. The army finally took control of the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp on Sunday after more than three months of fierce battles, including air, sea and land bombardment against the entrenched Fatah al-Islam militants. Defence Minister Elias al-Murr also said 202 militants were captured in the battles and an unknown number were buried in mass graves inside the largely destroyed camp. "This victory uprooted the biggest threat that faced...

MOHAMMARA, Lebanon - Lebanon's army crushed the last remnants of a militant group in a ferocious gunbattle Sunday that killed 39 of the fighters, ending a bloody three-month siege at a Palestinian refugee camp that was the country's worst internal violence in years. ADVERTISEMENT Nearby villages celebrated with fireworks, drumming and dancing after the government declared victory. The Qaida-inspired Fatah Islam fighters made their last stand by trying to stage a dawn breakout from the Nahr el-Bared camp, triggering the final gunbattles. The militants sneaked out through a tunnel to an area of the camp under army control and fought...

MOHAMMARA, Lebanon - The last militant stronghold of a Palestinian refugee camp devastated by more than three months of fighting between Islamic fighters and Lebanese soldiers fell to the army on Sunday, security officials said. Hours after the army killed 32 militants and captured at least 15 others as they tried to break out of the Nahr el-Bared camp, only occasional gunfire could be heard inside. The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the last stronghold of Fatah Islam militants fell later in the day to the army, which captured five wounded militants in their hideout. Celebratory gunfire erupted...

BEIRUT, Lebanon - Lebanese army helicopters stepped up raids Friday on al-Qaida-inspired Islamic militants barricaded in a Palestinian refugee camp in the country's north after five soldiers were killed, a senior military official said. A soldier died overnight Thursday and four other soldiers died in renewed fighting with Fatah Islam gunmen in the past two days in the besieged Nahr el-Bared camp, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity according to army regulations. The deaths raised to 153 the number of soldiers killed since fighting began May 20, he said. "The army is making a noticeable progress in its...

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration has blacklisted as a "foreign terrorist organization" a Lebanese Islamist group blamed for major fighting at a refugee camp, the Associated Press has learned. The State Department is expected to announce the designation against al-Qaida-inspired Fatah al-Islam, which is suspected of having links with Syria, on Monday. The designation imposes financial and travel restrictions on the group and its members, officials said Saturday, speaking on condition of anonymity because the designation is not yet public. The officials said Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice signed off on the decision to place the radical group on the...

NAHR AL-BARED, Lebanon (Reuters) - Two Lebanese soldiers and four al Qaeda-inspired militants were killed on Wednesday in pitched battles at a Palestinian refugee camp, taking the death toll from nearly 12 weeks of fighting to 267. Security sources said the men were killed in overnight and morning clashes at Nahr al-Bared camp in north Lebanon during which artillery, rockets, grenades and machine guns were used. Troops made some advances inside, seizing a number of buildings, they said. The military control a large part of the camp and its vicinity, home to 40,000 refugees before the fighting, but Fatah al-Islam...

BEIRUT, Lebanon - Police have killed the deputy commander of al-Qaida inspired militants entrenched in a Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon, the government said Monday. Abu Hureira was killed a few days ago by police in the northern port city of Tripoli, near the Nahr el-Bared refugee camp where Fatah Islam militants have been fighting Lebanese soldiers for more than two months, said Information Minister Ghazi Aridi. "Cabinet was informed by Interior Minister Hassan Sabei that Lebanese security forces have killed the Fatah Islam's No. 2 in the Abu Samra neighborhood" in Tripoli, Aridi told reporters following a Cabinet...

For the past three months, a Palestinian refugee camp in the Middle East has been under attack, resulting in the death of hundreds of people and the displacement of nearly half of the camp’s 40,000 residents. Yet the United Nations Security Council has not held an emergency session to condemn the attack. Nor have the governments of France and Britain issued statements condemning the “atrocities” against the Palestinian refugees in the Nahr al-Bared camp in northern Lebanon. For those who may wonder why there is no public outcry, the answer is simple. The army that is attacking the camp with...

NAHR AL-BARED, Lebanon (Reuters) - Al Qaeda-inspired militants killed six Lebanese soldiers on Thursday in fierce battles at a Palestinian refugee camp in north Lebanon, security sources said. They said 22 soldiers were wounded, three seriously, in fighting at the Nahr al-Bared camp which began in the early morning after Fatah al-Islam snipers shot dead two soldiers, prompting Lebanese troops to unleash artillery barrages. The army and Fatah al-Islam militants have been fighting at the coastal camp for nearly eight weeks. At least 212 people have been killed, making it Lebanon's worst internal violence since the 1975-1990 civil war. Security...

BEIRUT, Lebanon - At least 150 Palestinians fled a northern refugee camp Wednesday in anticipation of an assault by the Lebanese army battling Islamic militants holed up inside. Most of the refugees left with the help of the Palestinian Red Crescent, said Samar Kadi, an International Committee of the Red Cross communications officer. Those fleeing arrived on foot at the southern entrance of the Nahr el-Bared camp. They were searched by soldiers at a Lebanese army checkpoint and then climbed into vehicles sent by the Palestinian Red Crescent. The Lebanese army held many of them for interrogation, Kadi said. Witnesses...

Lebanese investigators have concluded that al Qaeda-inspired militants killed a Christian Lebanese minister in 2006, a Lebanese newspaper reported on Saturday. An-Nahar daily said results of the investigation into the Nov. 21 assassination of Industry Minister Pierre Gemayel would be made public soon and would show proof against Fatah al-Islam militants. Gemayel was assassinated while driving in a Christian suburb of Beirut. The country's ruling coalition, to whom Gemayel's Phalange Party belongs, accused Damascus of his killing. Syria denied any involvement. Lebanese investigators found a car suspected of being used in Gemayel's murder last month during a crackdown against militants...

BEIRUT, Lebanon - Some 300 Islamic militants have been killed or wounded in the monthlong battle with Lebanese troops in a Palestinian refugee camp, leaving only a few dozen fighters still hiding in the besieged camp, Defense Minister Elias Murr said Tuesday. In an interview with the Dubai-based Al-Arabiya television, Murr said the Lebanese army has cornered the remaining members of the al-Qaida-inspired Fatah Islam group in a small section of the Nahr el-Bared camp, located near the northern port city of Tripoli. The military now controls 80 percent of the camp, the minister said. The army has captured about...

Heavy clashes resumed Saturday between the Lebanese army and Fatah al-Islam militants at the Nahr al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon. Four more troops were killed. One Lebanese soldier was shot dead and an Islamist suicide bomber blew himself up and wounded several more, the military and a resident inside a besieged refugee camp said. "One Lebanese soldier has been killed by a Fatah al-Islam sniper," an army spokesman said on the 35th day of the siege of Nahr al-Bared. Three more Lebanese soldiers died of their wounds on Saturday after clashes with militants at the refugee camp, an...

BEIRUT, Lebanon - Lebanon's defense minister declared victory Thursday over the Fatah Islam militant group, saying it had been crushed after a monthlong military assault on its stronghold in a northern refugee camp and only mopping up remained. A Muslim cleric who has been acting as a mediator said later that Fatah Islam agreed to stop firing, and calm descended over the Nahr el-Bared camp outside the port of Tripoli The battle, Lebanon's worst internal violence since the 1975-90 civil war, killed 76 soldiers, at least 60 militants and more than 20 civilians. It came amid a fierce political power...

BEIRUT, Lebanon - Lebanese troops inched toward Islamic militant strongholds in a north Lebanon Palestinian refugee camp Tuesday as mediators hinted at a possible cease-fire deal that includes the disarmament of the al-Qaida-inspired militants. Two Lebanese soldiers became the latest victims of the battle around the Nahr el-Bared refugee camp near the northern city of Tripoli that began on May 20, security officials said. As the battle with the Fatah Islam group continued, mediators gave indications that a cease-fire deal with the militants was a possibility. According to a Palestinian Muslim cleric who has been acting as mediator, the deal...

NAHR AL-BARED, Lebanon (AFP) - Lebanese soldiers and diehard Islamist militants entrenched in a refugee camp fought gunbattles on Sunday after at least 17 people were killed in an operation to storm rebel positions. As the showdown entered its fourth week, an army officer at the scene said the high casualties were suffered in clashes on Saturday that were often at close quarters and accompanied by heavy artillery fire from the military. The army, which has encircled Nahr al-Bared, tried to push into the Palestinian refugee camp in north Lebanon and overrun positions held by Fatah al-Islam militants, which has...

TRIPOLI, Lebanon - Lebanon's army stepped up its assault on Islamic militants hiding inside a Palestinian refugee settlement on Saturday, launching artillery barrages and sending in armored carriers and special forces. Witnesses in the Nahr el-Bared camp reported some of the heaviest army shelling since June 1, when the Lebanese army — using tanks and artillery — launched an offensive to drive out the Fatah Islam militants. Security officials said five soldiers were killed Saturday and 15 wounded, some seriously. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not allowed to give official statements. Local and Arab television...

BEIRUT, Lebanon - Islamic militants killed a soldier Thursday in a Palestinian refugee camp where violence has raged for weeks, and an army raid on a suspected militant hide-out in eastern Lebanon uncovered vehicles rigged with explosives. Tensions have been high since the fighting broke out May 20 between the army and Fatah Islam militants in the northern Nahr el-Bared camp. Since then, there have been clashes at the Ein el-Hilweh camp in the south and several bombings in the Beirut area, sparking concerns Lebanon could devolve into widespread chaos. The soldier was gunned down Thursday by Fatah Islam snipers...