Fierce fighting erupted in and around a besieged Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon today as Lebanese troops resumed bombardment of militants inside.
Troops, backed by heavy artillery and tank fire, targeted suspected hideouts of the Fatah Islam militants inside the Nahr el-Bared camp on the outskirts of the northern port city of Tripoli.
Yesterday, troops destroyed the militants' main headquarters located on the edge of the camp, according to the state-run National News Agency. But the whereabouts of Fatah Islam leader Shaker Youssef al-Absi and his top aides remain unknown.
A Lebanese army commander said the decision to eliminate the Fatah Islam militants was "final and irreversible".
"There is no other way out for these terrorists except to lay down their arms and surrender to justice before it is too late," he said.
The fighting between Lebanese troops and Fatah Islam militants has claimed more than 150 lives - 69 soldiers, at least 60 Fatah Islam militants and more than 20 civilians - since its outbreak on May 20th - the worst internal violence to engulf Lebanon since the 1975-90 civil war.
Most of the camp's 31,000 residents have fled since the fighting began, but the International Committee of the Red Cross has said that between 3,000 and 6,000 civilians remain behind.
The violence at Nahr el-Bared has threatened to spread to the country's 11 other Palestinian refugee camps.
Fatah Islam emerged late last year after its leader and some 200 fighters split from the Fatah al-Intifada, a pro-Syrian Palestinian faction based in Damascus.