The Lebanese army resumed its air raids and shelling of militants holed up at Nahr al-Bared refugee camp in north Lebanon on Saturday after evacuating the last remaining civilians. Helicopters carried out repeated raids dropping 250- and 450-kilogram bombs on the small area still controlled by the Al-Qaeda-inspired Fatah al-Islam militants while tanks shelled the camp, reporters witnessed. "Pressure on the militants will be maintained until they heed our call to surrender," an army spokesman said.He said information gathered from the 63 women and children who were evacuated from the camp on Friday could help the army in its final assault on the militants. The group of civilians, including the wife and children of Fatah al-Islam chief Shaker al-Abssi, were handed over to their families overnight after questioning by the army, a cleric told reporters "The process of handing over the group of 63 women and children to their families began overnight," Sheikh Mohammed Hajj, spokesman for a group of Palestinian clerics who acted as go-betweens, said.
Two of the children evacuated were hospitalized after leaving the camp and three women were injured, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said. Some of the women and children released by the army went to two Palestinian refugee camps -- Beddawi, which is close to the main northern city of Tripoli, and Ein el-Hilweh in south Lebanon, he said. About 25 or 30 of them who are Syrian or Syrian-Palestinian were meanwhile sent to Syria, Hajj added. Among them were the wife and children of Abssi.