Lebanon takes Nahr al-Bared camp

After over three months of clashes, the Lebanese army has taken the Nahr al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp, located near Tripoli. The rebel group Fatah al-Islam, which had been holed up in the camp, seems to be in disarray. Its leader, Shaker al-Abssi, has reportedly been killed, while its surviving members have fled the camp. In all, 37 rebels and five Lebanese soldiers were killed in a battle on 1 September.

Prime Minister Fouad Siniora has declared victory "over the terrorists, those who sought chaos, destruction and tragedies for Lebanon." The army has planted Lebanese flags over the camp, and Siniora has promised to reopen the camp, saying, however, that in future the camp would be run exclusively under Lebanese authority (BBC).

I hope the Lebanese army's success is permanent, and a clone of Fatah al-Islam does not appear in the camp in a few weeks' time. The best thing to do, of course, would be to give the refugees Lebanese citizenship, and integrate them into the local population. That is not, however, something that any Arab state other than Jordan has been willing to contemplate.

Fatah al-Islam promises escalation

The Lebanon-based Palestinian militant group Fatah al-Islam (Islamic Conquest), which is fighting the Lebanese army in the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp in northern Lebanon, has promised to spread the conflict to the Ain el-Hilweh camp in the south of the country. At the same time, Fatah al-Islam has denied having any connection to the militant group Jund al-Sham, which recently attacked Lebanese soldiers at the southern camp (BBC).

Fighting at another Palestinian refugee camp

An apparently minor Islamist Palestinian militant group named Jund al-Sham (The Army of Greater Syria) clashed with the Lebanese army on 3 June at the Ain al-Hilweh refugee camp near the southern Lebanese city of Sidon. Two people, including one civilian, were injured when a Jund al-Sham militant attacked a Lebanese army post.

According to the mayor of Sidon, Abdul Rahman Bizri, the fighting has been stopped, with the help of other Palestinian groups

Meanwhile, over 100 people have so far been killed in the fighting between another Palestinian Islamist group, Fatah al-Islam, and the Lebanese army in the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp, located near Tripoli, in the north of Lebanon (BBC).

How ridiculous is it when groups that claim to be fighting for Islam attack the army of a Muslim country that has given their people refuge since 1948?