A calm settled over a Palestinian Nahr al-Bared refugee camp in north Lebanon on Friday after the Lebanese army and Islamists declared an end to 33 days of fighting in which 172 people were killed.
Lebanon's Defense Minister Elias al-Murr declared victory over the Fatah al-Islam group on Thursday, saying troops had seized all its positions and would besiege the camp until surviving militants surrender. Demining work would also continue, Reuters reported.
Fatah al-Islam, believed to have had a few hundred fighters when the battle started, relayed to Palestinian mediators its agreement to cease fire shortly after Murr's late-night announcement. Sheikh Mohammed Haj of the Palestinian Scholars Association, a mediator who met with Fatah Islam leaders in recent days, said the group "has declared a cease-fire and will comply with the Lebanese army's decision to end military operations."
Murr said many of the group's leaders had been killed and remaining fighters had pulled back from the edges of Nahr al-Bared into civilian areas deep inside the camp. He added the army would keep up its siege until all the militants gave themselves up, including their leader, Shaker al-Abssi. "They have to surrender ... It's not good enough to say Abssi was killed. If he is dead, give us the body," Murr said.
Palestinian sources said at least seven senior Fatah al-Islam members were killed, including a Saudi cleric named Abu al-Haris. The group's military commander Abu Hurayra and its spiritual mentor Abu Bakr were both badly wounded. Its senior spokesman, Abu Salim Taha, was also wounded, the sources said.
Murr said some of the fighters belonged to al Qaeda. Fatah al-Islam's Abssi has said the group has no organizational ties to Osama bin Laden's network but shares its militant ideology.
