Lebanese minister: Camp fighting causes 300 casualties

BEIRUT, Lebanon -- Some 300 Islamic militants have been killed or wounded in the monthlong battle with Lebanese troops in a Palestinian refugee camp, leaving only a few dozen fighters still hiding in the besieged camp, Defense Minister Elias Murr said Tuesday.

In an interview with the Dubai-based Al-Arabiya television, Murr said the Lebanese army has cornered the remaining members of the al-Qaida-inspired Fatah Islam group in a small section of the Nahr el-Bared camp, near the northern port city of Tripoli.

The military now controls 80 percent of the camp, the minister said.

The army has captured about 40 militants of different nationalities, including those suspected of links to al-Qaida, Murr said. He said the group's leader, Shaker al-Absi, who has not been seen since fighting broke out May 20, was now taking residents as "human shields," though he gave no other details.

The fighting in Nahr el-Bared has been Lebanon's worst internal violence since the 1975-1990 civil war, and is believed to have claimed the lives of at least 60 militants and more than 20 civilians.

It came amid a fierce power struggle between Lebanon's Western-backed government and the opposition led by the militant Hezbollah group.

Last week, Murr declared victory over Fatah Islam, but heavy machine gunfire and bursts of artillery shells continue to reverberate across the camp, including Tuesday, sending plumes of black and white smoke into the air.

The state-run National News Agency said the army unleashed artillery barrages to silence the militants' gunfire. At least two shells fired by Fatah Islam gunmen landed in villages near the camp, causing damage to a house but no casualties, it said.

"The army has accomplished its military mission with regard to destroying and occupying all Fatah Islam positions in the Nahr el-Bared camp," Murr maintained Tuesday.

When fighting broke out, there were more than 350 Fatah Islam fighters in the camp. Murr said the "remaining number now is between 50 to 60."

He said 84 soldiers have been killed and more than 150 soldiers have been wounded.

In recent days, the army said it destroyed several buildings that housed Fatah Islam's positions on the camp's fringes in what has become known as the "new camp."

But parts of the "old camp" -- the densely populated neighborhoods with narrow, winding streets where most of the Palestinian refugees lived -- appear to remain outside the military's control.

Murr said the army was tightening the noose around the remaining militants hiding in the "old camp" to force them to surrender.

He said the siege would continue until the militants surrender or are eliminated. "The army will not back down on its mission before these criminals are apprehended. This is a final and irreversible decision."

Earlier Tuesday, Murr met with FBI Director Robert Mueller, who reaffirmed U.S. support for Lebanon. A U.S. Embassy statement said Mueller's meetings in Beirut focused on law enforcement cooperation and "highlighted the willingness of the FBI to ... help Lebanon strengthen its ability to fight crime and terrorism by providing training and equipment."