Surrender or else, Lebanon warns militants

LEBANON: Lebanon’s defence minister told Islamic militants holed up in a Palestinian refugee camp on Wednesday after three days of fierce fighting with the army that they must surrender or else.

“The army will not negotiate with Fatah al-Islam, which has two choices: either surrender or the army will take the military option,” Elias Murr said in an interview on Arabic satellite channel Al-Arabiya.

“The army has made its military preparations, which I will not disclose,” said the minister without mentioning any deadline.

Murr spoke as thousands of refugees streamed out of the battered Nahr al-Bared camp near the Mediterranean city of Tripoli.

One Fatah al-Islam militiaman shouted at people fleeing: “Don’t leave the camp, go back home, die in your homes, this is what Islam requires you to do!”

But the refugees kept leaving.

Earlier, the embattled government of Prime Minister Fuad Siniora said its goal was still to “eliminate the Fatah al-Islam phenomenon” after the bloodiest internal fighting in Lebanon since the 1975-1990 war.

The International Committee of the Red Cross estimated that between 13,000 and 15,000 refugees have poured out since the fighting halted on Tuesday. But nobody is being allowed in, sparking fears that the army may be preparing to resume its bombardment.

“Despite the deep wounds, the army remains... the guarantor of the united national will, and will not be lenient with the gangs of terrorists,” the army command said.

The Al-Qaeda-inspired Sunni militia said it would abide by a ceasefire it declared on Tuesday but was ready to fight again.

“We respect the truce, but we will not surrender. If we are attacked, we will fight until the last drop of blood,” spokesman Abu Salim told AFP.

Meanwhile The UN Security Council rallied behind Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora’s government in its feud against Islamist militants but stressed the need to assist Palestinian refugees caught in the crossfire.

The 15-member Council “condemned in the strongest possible terms the attacks by the so-called Fatah al-Islam gunmen on Lebanese security and armed forces in northern Lebanon, which constitute an unacceptable attack on Lebanon’s stability, security and sovereignty.”

In a non-binding statement read by US Ambassador to the UN Zalmay Khalilzad, which chairs the council this month, the 15 members also underscored the need “to protect and give assistance to the civilian population, notably the Palestinian refugees”

Beirut, Thursday, AFP