BEIRUT (AFP)
The Lebanese army said it captured four fugitive Islamist militants on Saturday, including spokesman for Fatah al-Islam group who had previously been given for dead.
"Mohammed Saleh Dawawi, also known as Salim Abu Taha, was captured at dawn along with three other members of Fatah al-Islam in the Jabal Terbol region" near the main northern city of Tripoli, an army spokesman said.
An army spokesman had said on September 3, the day after troops finally recaptured the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp ending a 15-week siege, that Abu Taha had been killed.
Abu Taha is a Palestinian from the northern West Bank city of Nablus who has Syrian citizenship.
The army spokesman said the other three militants captured Saturday comprised a Saudi, a Syrian and a Tunisian.
Lebanese troops have been hunting down fugitive Fatah al-Islam militants ever since the siege of Nahr al-Bared ended with a desperate breakout bid by the remaining fighters.
The group's leader Shaker al-Abssi, also a Palestinian, still remains unaccounted for. DNA tests revealed that a body, identified by his wife as his, was in fact not Abssi.
Nearly 400 people were killed in the clashes in and around Nahr al-Bared, including at least 222 Islamists and 166 soldiers, making the standoff Lebanon's worst internal violence since the 1975-90 civil war. |
