Civilians evacuated from Lebanon camp released by army

"The process of handing over the group of 63 women and children to their families began overnight," Sheikh Mohammed Hajj, spokesman for a group of Palestinian clerics who acted as go-betweens, said.

Some of the women and children went to two Palestinian refugee camps -- Beddawi, which is close to the main northern city of Tripoli, and Ain al-Helweh in south Lebanon, he said.

About 25 or 30 of them who are Syrian or Syrian-Palestinian were meanwhile headed to Syria, Hajj added. Among them are the wife and children of Fatah al-Islam chief Shaker al-Abssi, he added.

The families evacuated on Friday were the last civilians remaining in the bombed-out Nahr al-Bared camp, opening the way for a final assault by the army on the remaining Al-Qaeda-inspired militants.

Early Saturday, military helicopters carried out three raids on the camp, which has mostly been reduced to rubble since the standoff between the army and the Islamists began on May 20.

The remaining militants, thought to number about 70, have been besieged for the past two months in a small area in the south of the camp, hiding in well equipped underground shelters, according to the army.

The advance of troops has been hampered by the camp's winding streets and booby traps and mines planted by the militants.

At least 200 people, including 142 soldiers, have been killed in the fighting, Lebanon's deadliest internal unrest since the 1975-1990 civil war.

The vast majority of Nahr al-Bared's 31,000 residents fled at the start of the fighting, with just the Islamists' wives and children remaining.

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