Islamists who have fought the Lebanese army at a Palestinian refugee camp for the past three months are seeking a truce to let their families and other civilians flee, an intermediary said on Tuesday. A spokesman for the Fatah Al-Islam group, Abu Salim Taha, called the Palestinian ClericsÂ’ Association late on Monday to ask for help in arranging a ceasefire in the fighting at Nahr Al-Bared camp in north Lebanon, an association member said. Palestinian clerics have tried unsuccessfully in the past to mediate between Fatah Al-Islam and the army, which demands the unconditional surrender of the Al Qaeda-inspired militants.
Lebanese and Palestinians sources have estimated that between 40 and 80 civilians, mostly the wives and children of the militants, remain in the camp, which lies in ruins after weeks of tank, artillery and helicopter bombardment. Most of the camp’s 40,000 refugees fled early on in the fighting. “We have always called on the militants to allow the women and children to flee. And now we have no objection to those civilians leaving the camp,” an army source said but gave no word on the terms of a truce.
Sheikh Mohammed Al-Haj of the Palestinian Clerics’ Association told Reuters the group had given Fatah Al-Islam the army’s response and were now waiting for the militants to come back with “numbers of civilians fleeing and the time period”. Another Lebanese soldier was killed in Nahr Al-Bared on Tuesday, bringing the army’s overall death toll to 141 since the conflict began on May 20, security sources said. |