Lebanese troops demolished the apartment of Fatah al-Islam's leader Shaker Abssi in a Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon after his militants killed two Lebanese Red Cross (LRC) rescuers Monday.
Local Naharnet news website quoted reliable sources as saying that Lebanese troops stormed Abssi's apartment in the Noras compound, in the center of Nahr al-Bared camp, confiscated a large quantity of documents from it and demolished the whole building.
This, the sources explained, leaves Abssi's militants besieged in three remaining buildings of the Noras compound.
Earlier on Monday, two LRC rescuers were killed when their vehicle was hit by a shell from Fatah al-Islam militants.
The state-run National News Agency identified the two fatalities as Boulos Miimari and Haitham Suleiman.
Meanwhile, army gunners manning 155-mm howitzers and mortar batteries pounded hideouts held by the militants in the camp, 12 km north of the port city of Tripoli, provincial capital of North Lebanon.
Lebanese army shelling also covered the southern entrance to the camp, which indicates that Fatah al-Islam militants were trying to infiltrate out of the besieged shantytown to seek refuge in mountains overlooking Tripoli, the report added.
The Lebanese government says Fatah al-Islam is a terrorist network affiliated with Syrian intelligence and launches attacks aimed at destabilizing Lebanon. Syria denies the charge.
The Lebanese army have been fighting with the militants since May 20. The Lebanese authorities have demanded that Fatah al-Islam militants in the camp surrender. But the militant group has vowed to fight to the very end and threatened to widen their targets of attack to the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon.
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