Bared, Lebanon, June 2, SPA -- Heavy fighting between the Lebanese Army and Islamists holed up in a Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon continued Saturday as the second phase of a military operation to crush the militants began, according to DPA. Soldiers and fighters from the Fatah al-Islam group have been engaged in sporadic gun and artillery fire since May 20 in and around the Nahr al-Bared settlement in northern Lebanon. "I can say that the second phase of the Lebanese Army military operation has started to crush Fatah al-Islam," a Lebanese Army source who requested anonymity said Saturday. "The army is now combing areas at the edge of the camp ... which came under its control since yesterday," he said, adding that the army was being confronted by few remaining pockets in the area of Samed, which used to be manned by Fatah al-Islam. "Now you will witness heavy shelling partly concentrating on the area to clean it from all the remaining militants," the source said. The army was being cautious in its advance and using 155- millimetre shells to "clean" the area because "those terrorists might have planted mines or booby trapped buildings on positions or themselves," he explained.
