|
Last refugees flee battle camp
11/07/2007 17:24 - (SA)
Nahr al-Bared, Lebanon - Remaining Palestinians trapped in a refugee camp in north Lebanon by weeks of fighting between the army and Islamist militants started to flee on Wednesday.
Seven civilians left the bombed-out Nahr al-Bared camp on foot, along with a Palestine Red Crescent ambulance and a car, an AFP correspondent said.
"This is the first batch, and the remaining refugees will be evacuated later in the day," said a Red Crescent member.
About 400 refugees were reported to be living in dire conditions in the camp, left in ruins by seven weeks of fighting between the army and the al-Qaeda-inspired Fatah al-Islam militia group.
A member of the mainstream Fatah movement said that armed militants of factions within the Palestine Liberation Organisation will also leave the camp with the civilians.
"The evacuation of the civilians will allow the Lebanese army to operate more freely, and without putting civilians at risk," a Palestinian source said.
The Lebanese army, which ousted Fatah al-Islam fighters from the northern part of the camp last month, said on Tuesday it has tightened the noose even further on the militants.
Late on Tuesday, a Lebanese soldier was killed by sniper fire from inside the camp, bringing the death toll to 174, including 86 soldiers and at least 68 Islamists, since fighting first broke out May 20.
It is the bloodiest internal fighting in Lebanon since the 1975-1990 civil war.
On Monday, Sultan Abul Aynayn, the Lebanon chief of the mainstream Palestinian faction Fatah, said that 400 Palestinian civilians of the camp's original population of 31 000 were still inside Nahr al-Bared.
Humanitarian organisations have been unable to deliver supplies into the camp since June 20, forcing remaining residents to scavenge for food and water in abandoned houses.
- AFP
|
News
