The militants may have fallen back from their original bastion in the Palestinian refugee camp of Nahr al-Bared in Lebanon, but those remaining are putting up a fierce fight, according to army sources. "They're fighting like rats -- it's very hard to see them," a Lebanese army sergeant resting behind the lines told reporters on condition of anonymity on Thursday.Tanks and mortars resumed pounding suspected Fatah al-Islam positions in the camp, focusing their fire on the center and south of Nahr al-Bared, areas so far relatively unscathed since the clashes began more than a month ago, on May 20. "Their firing points are camouflaged. They are in several, and run from one to the other," the sergeant said. "When they open fire from one position we spot them and reply with everything we've got. But it's often too late -- the shooter has already gone."
Motivated, trained, well-armed and mobile, the Sunni Islam militants of Fatah al-Islam are thought to contain veterans of the anti-American insurgency in Iraq among their ranks. The army has been taken aback by the ferocity of their resistance. "They made holes in the walls of the houses so they can pass from one to the other without coming out into the open," the sergeant said. "We think they also have tunnels. They're operating in rapid reaction teams of two or three. That's why the fight is so hard."
Lebanese army heavy guns have concentrated their fire for weeks on the northern sector of Nahr al-Bared -- the "new" camp which is a spillover of the original Palestinian refugee camp whose boundaries were set in 1948 by the United Nations. It was there that Fatah al-Islam chief Shaker al-Absi, a Palestinian, had set up his command post. The northern part of the camp is now a blasted wasteland, devastated by tons of high explosive shell bursts by the Lebanese army.
The soldiers are advancing slowly as they secure the northern area, fearful of mines and booby traps that have already killed several of their number. De-mining teams precede them as large bulldozers, protected by sandbags and metal plates, wait in the rear, ready to go into action.
The surviving militants have now withdrawn into the southern part of Nahr al-Bared, which is in principle controlled by more moderate factions such as the mainstream Fatah of Palestinian president Amhmoud Abbas. Fatah officials have said the order was given to prevent such a move, but clearly this has not been obeyed everywhere. "It is impossible that they could hold out for more than a month without the help of at least some local fighters," said Mustafa Adib, director of the Centre for Middle Eastern Strategic Studies in nearby Tripoli. "Their cause is a popular one among some of the younger people in the camps, but also among radical jihadists who are well established in the area," he told reporters.
"More broadly speaking, this fighting illustrates the urgent problem of Palestinian weapons in Lebanon, both inside the camps and elsewhere." Time to disarm completely all these camps he added.
Despite mediation efforts by local and Palestinian clerics, the Lebanese army is determined to accept nothing less than unconditional surrender by the militants. The credibility of the military is at stake. According to military sources the position of the army on the surrender is”irrevocable” "There will be no negotiations before the military operations end and the army is in control of Nahr al-Bared," Defense Minister Elias Murr was quoted as saying in Thursday's An-Nahar daily newspaper.
Update 4:00:PM June 21,2007 Beirut time
According to army sources, Fatah al-Islam terrorists have dispersed and are now hiding inside the camp mosques . Their snipers are shooting at the army from inside these mosques but the army is not responding out of respect for houses of worship. Fatah al- Islam according to PM Siniora “ have nothing to do with Islam … they are a gang of terrorists” he said . Their lack of respect for the mosques today proves Siniora is right . The army appears to have taken over the camp and is in the process of clearing the rubble and demining the booby traps left by the terrorists .
