Beirut – Lebanon’s defense minister declared victory Thursday over the Fatah Islam militant group, saying it had been crushed after a month-long military assault on its stronghold in a northern refugee camp and only mopping up remained.
A Muslim cleric who has been acting as a mediator said later that Fatah Islam agreed to stop firing, and calm descended over the Nahr el-Bared camp outside the port of Tripoli.
The battle, Lebanon’s worst internal violence since the 1975-90 civil war, killed 76 soldiers, at least 60 militants and more than 20 civilians. It came amid a fierce political power struggle between the Western- backed government and an opposition led by the militant Hezbollah.
“The Lebanese army has destroyed all Fatah Islam positions,” Defense Minister Elias Murr said on the private Lebanese Broadcasting Television. “The army is combing the area. This terrorist organization has been uprooted.”
Sheik Mohammed Haj of the Palestinian Scholars Association, a mediator who met with the militant group’s leaders in recent days, said Fatah Islam “has declared a cease-fire and will comply with the Lebanese army’s decision to end military operations.”
He said the militants would abide by conditions set by the army to end the fighting, but he would not elaborate. TV stations and newspapers said the deal included handing over Fatah Islam’s wounded and dismantling the group.
Murr said that “the military operation is over” but stressed that the camp would remain “a theater of operations and under siege” until the militants surrendered.
Military officials said army experts were clearing buildings, streets and houses of explosives placed by the militants.
He said a “large number” of Fatah Islam commanders had been killed over the past month, while leader Shaker al-Absi, deputy leader Abu Hureira and others were on the run, suggesting they were hiding in the camp among several thousand Palestinian civilians still holed up there.
A few hours before Murr’s announcement, sporadic shooting by army artillery and tanks could be heard in the camp as plumes of black and white smoke rose into the sky.
“What is happening now is some cleanup that the army’s heroes are carrying out, and dismantling some mines,” Murr said.
