NAHR AL-BARED, Lebanon, 8 July 2007 — The Lebanese Army called on Fatah Al-Islam extremists in a besieged refugee camp yesterday to surrender and bring an end to fighting that has raged for nearly seven weeks. “The army command, anxious to put an end to the bloodshed ... calls on the armed men of Fatah Al-Islam ... to take the initiative and surrender to the armed forces,” said a statement carried by the official NNA news agency.
The army appealed to the Islamist fighters in the northern Palestinian camp of Nahr Al-Bared “not to prevent those who wish (to surrender) from doing so, particularly casualties so that they can receive the necessary treatment.”
“They must facilitate the exit of civilians detained against their will in order to put an end to the abnormal situation to which the camp is being subjected,” it added. Fighting broke out at the refugee camp on May 20 when militants launched a series of attacks against soldiers, killing 27 of them around the camp and in Tripoli, the main city in northern Lebanon.
The government and the army have since been calling on the Fatah Al-Islam combatants to surrender. Several hundred of Nahr Al-Bared’s pre-conflict refugee population of 31,000 have been living under difficult conditions during the fighting. According to a count compiled from official figures, the conflict has claimed at least 173 lives, including 85 soldiers. It is the deadliest internal fighting since the 1975-1990 civil war.
Meanwhile, the investigation into last year’s assassination of a Christian Cabinet minister points to the involvement of Al-Qaeda-inspired militants, a Lebanese security official familiar with the case said yesterday.
Lebanon’s An-Nahar newspaper also reported that police investigating the killing of former Industry Minister Pierre Gemayel turned up evidence that the Fatah Al-Islam was behind the assassination.
Gemayel was shot dead by gunmen at an intersection north of Beirut on Nov. 21 last year. His death was part of a string of other assassinations that are being investigated by a UN commission initially established to investigate the February 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
