Lebanese Defense Minister Elias Murr said 220 Fatah Al Islam fighters
were also killed. Murr said 202 insurgents were captured and an unknown
number of fighters were buried in mass graves in the refugee camp.
"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," Murr told a briefing on Tuesday. "The organization was
aiming to isolate the north from Lebanon to create a terrorist emirate."
Officials said Fatah Al Islam commander Shaker Al Absi, 52, was also
killed. Al Absi, a Palestinian pilot for the Libyan Air Force in the 1980s,
had been missing since the start of the war and his body was identified in
early September.
On Sept. 3, the official Lebanese news agency reported that Al Absi was
killed by Lebanese Army main battle tank fire in Naher Al Bared. The
National News Agency said Al Absi, whose body was identified by his wife,
was killed along with five of his aides.
Officials said more than 1,500 Fatah Al Islam members fought in the
106-day war against Lebanon. They said the fighters included volunteers from
Algeria, Iraq,
Jordan, Morocco, Saudi Arabia and Syria.
Morocco was said to have contributed more than 40 fighters to Fatah Al
Islam. Officials, in a departure from previous statements, said they did not
find a direct link between Fatah Al Islam and Syria.
"All the investigations have confirmed that the Fatah Al Islam
organization is linked to Al Qaida and is in continuous link and contact
with it," Lebanese military intelligence chief Brig. Gen. George Khoury
said. "This was revealed through all the investigations that were carried
out of captured elements, communications that occurred between Al Qaida
cells outside Lebanon and the confessions of captives."
