Civilians evacuated from besieged Lebanon camp

NAHR AL-BARED, LEBANON (AFP) - The families of Islamist fighters besieged in a Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon were evacuated by the army yesterday, opening the way for a possible final military assault on the militants.

An army statement said the evacuees numbered 38 children and 25 women. It said two children were transported to hospital and it appealed to the militants still inside the battered camp to surrender and face a fair trial.

A spokeswoman for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said among the group were two children and three women injured yesterday in an explosion inside the Nahr al-Bared camp.

The military agreed to a temporary truce yesterday with the Fatah al-Islam fighters to allow the last 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.

Three military buses filled with women veiled in black from head to toe and children were seen leaving the camp followed by several ambulances. They were taken under heavy security to a nearby military base for questioning.

Sheikh Mohammed Hajj, spokesman for a group of Palestinian clerics involved in mediations, said the evacuees included the widow and child of Abu Hureira, Fatah al-Islam's number two, who was killed recently, and the wife of the group's chief, Shaker al-Abssi.

He said the women included 12 Syrians or Syrian-Palestinians, and that the rest were Lebanese.

He said the Lebanese women and children would be handed over to their families after questioning.

"The women and children were allowed to shower and were fed on their arrival at the military base and were treated well by female officers," Hajj said.

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.

Immediately following the evacuation in late afternoon, the army resumed its shelling of Fatah al-Islam positions.

"The militants have decided to fight all the way so there will be fierce battles," Elias Hanna, a retired army general and military analyst, told AFP. "The army will say that the end is near so they have to go into the last corner to kill or capture Fatah al-Islam."

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.

Hajj said his group had reestablished contact with a spokesman 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.

Negotiations to evacuate the families began overnight Monday after Taha called the clerics seeking a way out for the civilians who have 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."