You never hear much because Fatah al-Islam is backed by the US and the Saudis, so...
"Lebanon: Militants’ Families Leave Camp... Families of Fatah al Islam militants holed up in the battered Palestinian refugee camp Nahr al Bared, north of Tripoli, were permitted to leave under a temporary truce with the army. Their evacuation clears the way for a possible final military assault to end more than three months of fighting between the militant group and the Lebanese Army.
A spokesman for the Palestinian Clerics Association, which mediated the operation, said 22 women and 41 children left the camp in buses accompanied by army vehicles, bound for interrogation. Two children were taken to a hospital.
[??]
Sheik Mohammad al-Hajj, the association’s spokesman: “The battle days were not easy, and exhaustion features were apparent, but the army has promised to release them very quickly.”
A senior military official said the army, which had been calling on the remaining civilians to leave the camp for weeks, might now open a final assault:
“The army does not have to worry about injuring children or women anymore."
[Like they ever do?]
Most of the camp’s 30,000 residents fled in May, early in the fighting. The army estimates that 70 militants remain inside. They have rejected calls to surrender (New York Times August 25)."
"Militants' relatives evacuate compound; 70 fighters left in Palestinian camp" by Zeina Karam/Associated Press August 25, 2007
BEIRUT -- Families of Islamic fighters left a besieged Palestinian refugee camp yesterday after the militants and the Lebanese Army agreed to the evacuation, according to a Muslim cleric mediating between the two.
The evacuation of the 25 women and 38 children -- mostly relatives of Fatah Islam fighters caught inside the Nahr el-Bared camp for three months -- clears the way for a possible final military assault to eradicate the remaining militants inside.
Only fighters, now estimated at 70, remain in a small area deep inside the camp near the coast. An army statement called on remaining Fatah Islam fighters to surrender, pledging to give them "humanitarian treatment and a fair trial."
Fighting has continued for more than three months at Nahr el-Bared.
[Yeah, and it has hardly been reported at all. Sniff, sniff?]
An official with the Palestinian Scholars' Association who was at the southern entrance to the camp said the women and children evacuated yesterday received food and water before boarding Army buses that took them outside the camp for interrogation. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the operation.
Highlighting security concerns -- some officials had expressed fears that the civilians would be wearing explosive belts -- television crews and journalists were asked to leave before the evacuation started.
[Sick pf police states everywhere, shutting down medias.
Really, when is enough enough?]
Lebanese private LBC television later showed footage of a brown Army bus taking the fighters' families to a military barracks.
The Army command also released footage showing a group of women as they arrived at an Army outpost in the camp, some of them holding babies. It also showed soldiers carrying toddlers and putting them onboard the bus.
[Imprisoning mommies and babies? HOW DISGUSTING!]
Witnesses near Nahr el-Bared said the Army suspended its bombardment for a few hours during the evacuation.
[Awwwww, isn't that so very nice of them?
Not WRECKING ANYTHING or KILLING PEOPLE for a few hours.
Yaaaay!]
