NAHR Al BARED, Lebanon - Lebanese soldiers hunted down fugitive militants on Monday after crushing an Islamist group in fighting that ended a deadly 15-week standoff at a battered Palestinian refugee camp. As troops swept the devastated shantytown in northern Lebanon for explosives and hunted for any surviving members of Fatah Al Islam, the bodies of two of the Sunni extremist groupÂ’s leaders were identified, an army spokesman said.
‘We have identified the bodies of Fatah Al Islam chief Shaker Al Abssi and his spokesman Abu Salim Taha,’ the spokesman told AFP. ‘We also believe that we have the body of Nasser Ismail, another of the top commanders.’ He said soldiers had also captured four militants in the camp on Monday, including one hiding in an attic.An army officer here added that four Islamists hiding in the sewers were killed after they fired at an army patrol in the camp, wounding two soldiers. Gunshots could still be heard inside the camp, and an army official there said troops were trying to
Bulldozers cleared sandbags from around Nahr Al Bared, which remained off-limits to civilians on Monday, while troops in armoured carriers cordoned off an area south of the camp and traffic on the main coastal highway to neighbouring Syria was diverted. Another military source said soldiers found weapons and rockets in underground shelters where the militants, who were said to take their inspiration from Osama bin LadenÂ’s Al Qaeda network, had been holed up.