The battle is over?
I hardly knew it had begun based on your shitty summer coverage, MSM!
Or is that because Fatah is our guys?
"Lebanese official touts battle at camp" by Yara Bayoumy/Reuters September 5, 2007
BEIRUT - Lebanon said yesterday that its army killed at least 222 Islamist militants from a group linked to Al Qaeda during a 15-week battle at a Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon.
The army finally took control of the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp on Sunday after more than three months of fierce battles, including air, sea, and land bombardment against the entrenched Fatah al-Islam militants.
Defense Minister Elias al-Murr also said 202 militants were captured in the battles and an unknown number were buried in mass graves inside the camp, which was largely destroyed.
Murr told a news briefing: "This victory uprooted the biggest threat that faced the Lebanese people, because Fatah al-Islam was spreading like cancer cells to target each part of the nation. The organization was aiming to isolate the north from Lebanon to create a terrorist emirate."
At least 42 civilians and 163 soldiers were killed, bringing the death toll to 427.
Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, speaking during a visit to Rome, said Lebanon is committed to rebuilding the camp and asked donor countries for help in relief and reconstruction.
But he said the state would regain "full control" and that the camp would become "a model of the real relationship and healthy relationship between the Lebanese and the Palestinians."
The army's head of intelligence said Fatah al-Islam is directly linked to Al Qaeda.
The group has said it has no organizational ties to Osama bin Laden's network and that its aims are to spread its hard-line interpretation of Islam among Palestinians and to fight Israel.
But Brigadier General George Khoury told the same briefing:
"All the investigations have confirmed that the Fatah al-Islam organization is linked to Al Qaeda and is in continuous link and contact with it. This was revealed through all the investigations that were carried out of captured elements, communications that occurred between Al Qaeda cells outside Lebanon, and confessions of captured people."
[So they busted the Saudi conduit?]
Lebanese soldiers who participated in the battles began returning to their bases yesterday as thousands of flag-waving residents cheered them on the roads of northern Lebanon.
The army also said it had no information linking the group to Syrian intelligence - a charge maintained by members of Lebanon's Cabinet but denied by Fatah al-Islam and Damascus.
[Well, no, you wouldn't find that because THERE IS NONE!]
Major General Shawki al-Masri, army Chief of Staff:
"In this issue specifically, we have no information that indicates this group's link to Syrian intelligence. I want to affirm that the investigation on those captured has not ended . . . and these investigations will reveal the truth in this matter."
Masri also said the army's entry to Nahr al-Bared did not mean soldiers would go into other Palestinian camps in Lebanon but that the army would prevent "terrorist acts" wherever they happen, either inside or outside Palestinian camps."
Most UNDER-REPORTED STORY this past summer (except for Afghanistan, which is always forgotten).
