The families of Islamist fighters besieged in a Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon were evacuated by the army on Friday, opening the way for a possible final military assault.
”The civilians, 26 women and 33 children, are in our custody,” said an army spokesperson who did not want to be named.
A spokesperson for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said among the group were two children and three women injured on Friday in an explosion inside the Nahr al-Bared camp.
”The children were taken to hospital and the women are being examined by Red Cross staff,” the spokesperson, Virginia de la Guardia, said.
The military agreed to a temporary truce on Friday with the Fatah al-Islam fighters to allow the civilians to leave the camp, which has been mostly reduced to rubble following more than three months of intense shelling and air raids by the army.
A military bus filled with women veiled in black from head to toe and children was seen leaving the camp followed by several ambulances. They were taken under heavy security to a nearby military base for questioning.
A cleric involved in mediations to evacuate the civilians said the women included 12 Syrians or Syrian-Palestinians. The rest were Lebanese, Sheikh Mohammed Hajj said. He said the Lebanese women and children would be handed over to their families after questioning.
The evacuation could pave the way for the army to launch a final assault on the al-Qaeda-inspired militants, who have refused demands to surrender and vowed to fight to the death.
The army refused to provide a list of the civilians being evacuated, but they are said to include the wife of Fatah al-Islam chief Shaker al-Abssi and the widow and child of his number two, Abu Hureira, who was killed recently.
The militants, thought to number about 70, have been besieged for the past two months in a small area in the southern part of the camp, hiding in well-equipped underground shelters, according to the army. The advance of troops has been hampered because of the camp’s winding streets and the booby traps and mines left by the militants.
At least 200 people, including 142 soldiers, have been killed in the fighting, the deadliest internal unrest in Lebanon since the 1975-1990 civil war.
A military source said the evacuees would be questioned by the army command and that any foreigners among them would then be handed over to their respective embassies. Anyone needing emergency medical assistance, particularly the children, would be taken to hospital, the head of the Palestine Red Crescent Society said.
A Palestinian cleric mediating the week-long efforts to evacuate the civilians said his group had re-established contact with a spokesperson for the Islamists overnight after losing touch for three days. ”Abu Salim Taha contacted us again and said that the civilians are ready to leave the camp,” he said.
He said the group had been told by the army to stand ready at a gathering point in the western part of the camp, along the Mediterranean seafront, from where they would be transported by military vehicles.
Negotiations to evacuate the families began overnight on Monday after Taha contacted the clerics seeking a way out for the civilians who had been inside the camp since May 20, when the clashes erupted.
The vast majority of Nahr al-Bared’s 31 000 refugee-residents fled at the start of the fighting, with just the Islamists’ wives and children remaining.
The army had repeatedly urged the militants to let civilians go, accusing them of holding them as ”human shields”. They have also appealed to the Islamists to surrender and face a fair trial. — Sapa-AFP