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The army assault came hours after the evacuation of the last remaining civilians in the battered camp |
NAHR AL-BARED, Lebanon — The Lebanese army pounded the Nahr al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon on Saturday, August 25, after the evacuation of the last remaining civilians from the bombed-out area.
"Pressure on the militants will be maintained until they heed our call to surrender," an army spokesman told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Army helicopters raided the battered camp, dropping 250- and 400-kilogram bombs on the small area still controlled by Fatah Al-Islam militants.
Security sources said that there were no more than 30 active militants hiding in well equipped underground shelters in the camp.
The advance of Lebanese troops has been hampered by the camp's winding streets, booby traps and mines planted by the Al-Qaeda-inspired militants.
The army spokesman said that information gathered from the last civilians evacuated from the camp could help the army in its final assault on the militants.
The militants have repeatedly rejected army calls to surrender and face a fair trial.
At least 200 people, including 142 soldiers, have been killed since the fighting erupted on May 20 in Lebanon's deadliest internal unrest since the 1975-1990 civil war.
Evacuation
The army assault came hours after the evacuation of the last remaining civilians in the battered camp.
"We have received 63 civilians -- 25 women and 38 children," a military source told Reuters.
Security sources said the civilians were taken to a nearby military base for questioning. Two children were taken to hospital.
Later, some of the evacuated civilians went to two Palestinian refugee camps -- Beddawi, which is close to the main northern city of Tripoli, and Ain al-Helweh in south Lebanon, said Sheikh Mohammed Hajj, spokesman for a group of Palestinian scholars mediating a solution to the crisis.
About 25 or 30 of the civilians who are Syrian or Syrian-Palestinian were meanwhile evacuated to Syria, he added.
Among those who left to Syria were the wife and children of Fatah Al-Islam chief Shaker al-Abssi.
The besieged militants had asked Palestinian mediators earlier this week to secure a truce to allow their families to leave.
Hajj said the mediators were also attempting to evacuate a number of injured Fatah Al-Islam fighters from the camp.
Most of the camp's 31,000 refugees fled to a nearby Palestinian refugee camp in the first days of fighting.
Human Rights Watch on June 13 accused the Lebanese army of detaining and abusing Palestinians fleeing the besieged camp.
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