Pounding Fatah al Islam Into Submission

The Lebanese military is not letting up on the Fatah al Islam terrorists holed up in a Palestinian camp near Tripoli. They're now using aerial attacks in addition to artillery.

A Lebanese army helicopter on Saturday fired missiles and strafed suspected positions of Islamic militants on the edge of a Palestinian refugee camp with machine gun fire in the first air force involvement in nearly two weeks of fighting.

The helicopter, a French-made Gazelle, directed machine gun fire at areas near the Mediterranean coastline. Two air-to-surface missiles were also fired during three runs over the area.

It was not clear what the aircraft was firing at, but it was possibly blocking an escape route by sea for the Fatah Islam militants.

The air force's first involvement came on the second day of an offensive the army launched to defeat the militants and force their surrender from the Nahr el-Bared refugee camp where they have been holed up.

Lebanon has no fixed wing aircraft in its arsenal, but it has 33 helicopters, most of them transports.

Three more Lebanese soldiers were killed and five wounded Saturday, military officials said, leaving the army with five dead and 15 wounded since the latest offensive began.

Lebanese security officials said dozens of militants from the Fatah Islam group had been killed or wounded in the fighting since Friday, but the figure could not be independently verified, and a senior militant commander said only two fighters had been wounded since the fighting began.

Artillery is still being used to block off escape routes and the terrorists' bunkers and facilities in the camp. They're making progress, but not without suffering casualties:

As Palestinian mediation efforts stalled, the army moved in one day after the ruling majority declared its "full" support for whatever decision the army made, giving the military a green light to deal with the security crisis without state interference.

"We have encircled the building where the group's leader, Shaker Abssi, is holed up, and our forces are a 150 meters away," a military source told The Daily Staron condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

Three army soldiers were confirmed dead and 10 others were wounded, said the source, raising the total of army deaths to 38.

"We secured several major Fatah al-Islam posts, and we targeted tall buildings to prevent snipers from attacking the army," said the army source.

The army reported that it took control of key positions held by Fatah al-Islam militants and destroyed sniper nests on the northern and eastern edges of the Nahr al-Bared camp. The Samed and Daawaniyeh buildings, which had been used by Fatah al-Islam to fire on the army, were completely destroyed.

The military refused to divulge details on troop movements, and journalists were ordered away from the camp and from reporting from roofs of tall buildings adjacent to the camp.

Fatah al Islam thugs claim that they'll fight until all the weapons and ammo is expended. One has to wonder how all those weapons made it into the camp in the first place considering that UNRWA was supposed to keep such events from happening.