Free Republic

BEIRUT (AFP) – Lebanese troops on Saturday killed two Islamist militants including a head of an Al-Qaeda-inspired group which fought a battle with the army in 2007 that cost hundreds of lives, a military spokesman said. "Abdel Rahman Awad, one of the key leaders of Fatah al-Islam," was killed along with another militant known as Abu Bakr during clashes in the eastern Bekaa Valley region, the spokesman told AFP. A judicial source said Abu Bakr was Awad's key deputy who provided military training to members of Fatah al-Islam, a shadowy group said to be inspired by Al-Qaeda. In 2007, Fatah...

Lebanon proposes to rebuild Nahr al-Bared, the Palestinian city-camp near Tripoli pulverised in a long siege last year in an attempt to kill Sunni militants holed up there. The new, as yet only imagined, town is intended to preserve the memories of the old, yet return the area to the control of Lebanon.

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...

Lebanese forces killed at least 31 gunmen who tried to flee a Palestinian refugee camp on Sunday, security sources said. Eleven more fighters from the Fatah al-Islam group were captured when they tried to break out of the Nahr al-Bared camp in north Lebanon. Following the fight, the Lebanese army took full control on the Palestinian camp, a senior security source said. "The battle is over. The Lebanese army has seized the last positions of Fatah al-Islam in the camp," the source told Reuters. The army had estimated that 35 active fighters remained in the camp before Sunday, but it...

NAHR AL-BARED, Lebanon, (Reuters) - An uneasy calm settled over a Palestinian refugee camp in north Lebanon on Friday after the Lebanese army declared victory in 33 days of fighting against al Qaeda-inspired militants. The battle for Nahr al-Bared camp in which 172 people were killed was Lebanon's worst outbreak of internal violence since a 1975-90 civil war. Smoke curled from buildings shattered by shelling at one entrance to the camp, but only a few explosions and a brief rattle of gunfire after dawn broke the silence. Security sources said the blasts were caused by soldiers blowing up booby-trapped buildings...