Lebanese Army Hunting Fugitives
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
MOHAMMARA, Lebanon – Lebanese soldiers searched through devastated buildings and scorched bushes along the Mediterranean coastline in northern Lebanon today, hunting for fugitives a day after the army crushed the remnants of a militant group and ended a three-month siege at a Palestinian Arab refugee camp.
Meanwhile, the body of the leader of the militant Fatah Islam group, Shaker al-Absi, was identified by his wife at a hospital in the port city of Tripoli, said Nasser Adra, the hospital’s director. Two captured militants also identified the body as al-Absi’s.
However, Mr. Adra told The Associated Press that the hospital could not officially confirm the identity, which would have to come from judicial authorities after a DNA test.
Mr. Al-Absi, a Palestinian linked to the late leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, has not been seen or heard from since early in the fighting that erupted May 20.
The army searched today for Fatah Islam fighters that may have escaped yesterday battle at the Nahr el-Bared camp. Patrol boats were out looking for bodies in the sea. Military helicopters flew over the camp in low reconnaissance runs, as smoke from smoldering fires rose into the sky.
