allesennogwat
07-11-2007, 07:02 PM
NAHR AL-BARED, Lebanon - - More than 150 people, mostly Palestinian militants, fled a besieged refugee camp in northern Lebanon on Wednesday amid signs of a final assault by the army against die-hard Islamists.
About 140 Palestinian militants, not connected to the Fatah al-Islam militiamen fighting the army since May 20, were evacuated by military trucks to a Lebanese army barracks, a Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) source said.
At the same time, around 20 women, believed to be Palestinian refugees, were evacuated separately on a bus, relief workers said. They later arrived in the nearby camp of Beddawi, which has served as shelter for the bulk of displaced refugees.
But relief workers said an effort to evacuate families of the Fatah al-Islam holdouts -- in all 45 children and 20 women -- on board five Red Crescent and Red Cross ambulances had come to nothing.
The ambulances which had entered the camp on two occasions left several hours later without any passengers, amid a new burst of shelling from army positions, a correspondent at the scene said.
Beirut newspapers have been reporting for the past few days that the army is on the verge of storming Nahr al-Bared and making a final assault against the dozens of the Al-Qaeda-inspired Sunni Islamist fighters still holed up inside.
The PLO source said that activists of the mainstream Fatah handed over nine Fatah al-Islam fighters, who had surrendered, to the army.
The camp, which has run short of fresh food and water, was now largely deserted apart from the Fatah al-Islam fighters, he told AFP before the aborted ambulance evacuation which left their families stranded inside.
International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) spokeswoman Virginia de la Guardia told AFP earlier that more than 50 civilians, apparently the Fatah al-Islam families, had been expected to gather at an agreed meeting point inside the camp.
"But the people were not there when the ambulances went in. We will try again tomorrow, this is not the first time this happens," she told AFP.
Another Palestinian official said the evacuation from the seafront camp near northern Lebanon's port city of Tripoli would "allow the Lebanese army to operate more freely, and without putting civilians at risk".
On the eve of the anniversary of the start of last year's Israel-Hezbollah war, Prime Minister Fuad Siniora called Wednesday for the Lebanese armed forces to "put a final end" to the Fatah al-Islam "terrorists", in an apparent green light to storm the camp.
The evacuation of more than 150 people was the first large-scale operation in three weeks from the seafront camp where clashes have raged for more than seven weeks, often with the army's gunners firing off heavy artillery.
Relief workers have been unable to deliver supplies into the camp since June 20, forcing an unknown number of remaining residents to scavenge for food and water in abandoned houses.
Almost all of its original population of about 31,000 people fled during lulls in the battle since the eruption of the deadliest fighting to sweep Lebanon since the 1975-1990 civil war.
Seven refugees also walked out early Wednesday while the women and children were gathered at the army checkpoint and being questioned by the military at the southern entrance of Nahr al-Bared, near where the fighting has been focused.
According to testimony gathered by rights activists, beatings and insults have been a feature of army detentions, as the Lebanese security services garners more information on Fatah al-Islam.
"We have been collecting the names of people who want to get out," by mobile phone contact with residents, said de la Guardia of the ICRC, which has been coordinating relief operations in tandem with the Palestine Red Crescent and Lebanese Red Cross.
Late on Tuesday, a Lebanese soldier was killed by sniper fire from inside the camp. That brought the overall death toll to at least 174, including 86 soldiers and at least 68 Islamists, since fighting first broke out more than seven weeks ago.
The fighting erupted when the Islamists, who are of different Arab nationalities, launched a string of attacks on soldiers, killing 27 of them around the camp and in nearby Tripoli, according to the military.
About 140 Palestinian militants, not connected to the Fatah al-Islam militiamen fighting the army since May 20, were evacuated by military trucks to a Lebanese army barracks, a Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) source said.
At the same time, around 20 women, believed to be Palestinian refugees, were evacuated separately on a bus, relief workers said. They later arrived in the nearby camp of Beddawi, which has served as shelter for the bulk of displaced refugees.
But relief workers said an effort to evacuate families of the Fatah al-Islam holdouts -- in all 45 children and 20 women -- on board five Red Crescent and Red Cross ambulances had come to nothing.
The ambulances which had entered the camp on two occasions left several hours later without any passengers, amid a new burst of shelling from army positions, a correspondent at the scene said.
Beirut newspapers have been reporting for the past few days that the army is on the verge of storming Nahr al-Bared and making a final assault against the dozens of the Al-Qaeda-inspired Sunni Islamist fighters still holed up inside.
The PLO source said that activists of the mainstream Fatah handed over nine Fatah al-Islam fighters, who had surrendered, to the army.
The camp, which has run short of fresh food and water, was now largely deserted apart from the Fatah al-Islam fighters, he told AFP before the aborted ambulance evacuation which left their families stranded inside.
International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) spokeswoman Virginia de la Guardia told AFP earlier that more than 50 civilians, apparently the Fatah al-Islam families, had been expected to gather at an agreed meeting point inside the camp.
"But the people were not there when the ambulances went in. We will try again tomorrow, this is not the first time this happens," she told AFP.
Another Palestinian official said the evacuation from the seafront camp near northern Lebanon's port city of Tripoli would "allow the Lebanese army to operate more freely, and without putting civilians at risk".
On the eve of the anniversary of the start of last year's Israel-Hezbollah war, Prime Minister Fuad Siniora called Wednesday for the Lebanese armed forces to "put a final end" to the Fatah al-Islam "terrorists", in an apparent green light to storm the camp.
The evacuation of more than 150 people was the first large-scale operation in three weeks from the seafront camp where clashes have raged for more than seven weeks, often with the army's gunners firing off heavy artillery.
Relief workers have been unable to deliver supplies into the camp since June 20, forcing an unknown number of remaining residents to scavenge for food and water in abandoned houses.
Almost all of its original population of about 31,000 people fled during lulls in the battle since the eruption of the deadliest fighting to sweep Lebanon since the 1975-1990 civil war.
Seven refugees also walked out early Wednesday while the women and children were gathered at the army checkpoint and being questioned by the military at the southern entrance of Nahr al-Bared, near where the fighting has been focused.
According to testimony gathered by rights activists, beatings and insults have been a feature of army detentions, as the Lebanese security services garners more information on Fatah al-Islam.
"We have been collecting the names of people who want to get out," by mobile phone contact with residents, said de la Guardia of the ICRC, which has been coordinating relief operations in tandem with the Palestine Red Crescent and Lebanese Red Cross.
Late on Tuesday, a Lebanese soldier was killed by sniper fire from inside the camp. That brought the overall death toll to at least 174, including 86 soldiers and at least 68 Islamists, since fighting first broke out more than seven weeks ago.
The fighting erupted when the Islamists, who are of different Arab nationalities, launched a string of attacks on soldiers, killing 27 of them around the camp and in nearby Tripoli, according to the military.