But the siege of the camp will continue until the leaders surrender, which is far better than letting the jihadists flee and melt into the general population to fight another day. It may also have some deterrent effect on similar groups.
"Lebanon declares victory in war on militants," by Nadim Ladki for Reuters:
BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanon declared victory on Thursday in its 33-day war against an al Qaeda-inspired militant group at a Palestinian refugee camp and said its military operation there was over.
[...]
I can tell the Lebanese that as of now the military operation in Nahr al-Bared is finished," Defence Minister Elias al-Murr told Lebanon’s LBC television.
"All the positions of the terrorists have been crushed," he said, adding that the surviving members of Fatah al-Islam had pulled back from the edges of Nahr al-Bared into civilian areas deep in the camp.
"I dedicate this victory to the Lebanese people ... all of the Lebanese people."
Murr said the army would maintain a siege around the camp until all Fatah al-Islam militants surrendered, including their leader Shaker al-Abssi.
"They have to surrender ... It’s not good enough to say Abssi was killed, if he is dead, give us the body," he said. Murr said the army was continuing some mopping up operations and defusing mines and booby traps at the outskirts of the camp.
A source at a grouping of Palestinian Muslim clerics, which had tried to mediate an end to the battles, said Fatah al-Islam official Shahine Shahine told the mediators the group welcomed the Lebanese announcement of an end to the operation.
"He told us that Fatah al-Islam declares a ceasefire," the source told Reuters.
Drop leaflets with the unnegotiable terms of surrender: 24 hours to exit camp before the nerve gas begins.
Whenever these clowns lose, they declare a cease-fire. If it is, as we can assume, a unilateral one, then now is the time to wipe them out. But that would be killing them, wouldn't it? And we don't want to go so far in war. Let's wait till they surrender, then we can put them in a cell until their buddies grab some of our men. Then there will be a prisoner exchange.
This is 21st century warfare: kill as few of the enemy as you can. Rehabilitate them. Money is no object, there's the American taxpayers who can foot the bill. Why should they make all that money and the Ummah live in misery?
War without killing. That we can support. Oh a mnimum of killing--if you have to. But Israel fights that way, and we try to fight like that. So what if we lose some troops? We have a clean conscience. We have taken the high ground. The high moral ground. Hurray!
""He told us that Fatah al-Islam declares a ceasefire," the source told Reuters."
.....of course we know Muslim ceasefires usually last about two days....just enough time to reload and move to a new attack position...
Does someone have a playbill ? I am confused , Fatah ,Hamas......Lebanon, Gaza ......Are they not the opposite sides of the same sword? Did not the peoples of Lebanon and the PA vote these people in to power? Isn't the lesser of two evils still evil? Don't both of these groups want to wipe the earth clean of Israel and the U.S.?
The only good jihadi is a dead one, and not one that is just surrounded.
Of what use is presumptuous and premature declarations of victory ?
Mountaingirl:
Lebanon's government, as opposed to the Iranina-backed Lebanese Hezbullah statelet that attacked Israel last summer, is not an Islamist government and is more-or-less democratic and representative of the population mix. Lebanon's problems largely arise from its unfortunate proximity to Syria and the sizable "Palestinian refugee camps" within its border.
But your question reminds me of an analogy that a late Canadian politician, Tommy Douglas, used to employ: the voting public was represented as mice who were given the choice of voting for either the black cats or the white cats. When one mouse spoke up and asked why they weren't voting mice into government, he was dismissed as "a Communist".
How does this transpose in the middle east? The population knows little but theocratic fascism (Iran, Saudi Arabia) or quasi-secular fascism (Syria and Saddam's Iraq). Those who aspired to any kind of liberal democratic ideals ended up rather quickly dispatched to prisons and death for clearly being agents of Zionism and Freemasonry.
The problem
Now that the Lebanese government has the upper hand here, they need to just deport all of these "palistinians" back to Gaza and close the refugee camps. Problem now belongs to Hamas.
"It may also have some deterrent effect on similar groups."
Maybe for awhile, but not forever. A new imam will come along and stir the pot of bloodlust again. It is an imam's main duty to preach jihad. This is why I look at muslim clerics, imams, or whatever you want to call them - as 'officers' in this war. It just isn't the same as what we consider officers, just like islam is not the same as what we consider a 'religion'.
unicorns62000
I've been saying the same thing for years. The U.S. will never again win a war! Why? Because we don't want to hurt anyone. How can any country win a war if it doesn't want to hurt anyone. Would we have won WW2 if we had that strategy? It doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that you can never win a defensive war.
From article: "All the positions of the terrorists have been crushed," he said, adding that the surviving members of Fatah al-Islam had pulled back from the edges of Nahr al-Bared into civilian areas deep in the camp.
What doe's, 'deep inside the camp', mean? A few block's away? These are not 'camp's'. There are no tent's or sleeping bag's evident. These are neighborhood's with paved street's, and buiding's where there is electricity and plumbing. The terrorist's like to hide among non-combatant women and children. It is often more than just forcing themselve's on 'camp's' that dont want them, it's a 'family' thing. These people have been incestuous, for so long, that everybody is related to everyone else...'deep inside the camp', probably mean's that the terrorist 'Abu', moved his jihad to his cousin 'Abu's' house, a few block's away...actually, there is no 'deep', in these 'camp's'....
33 day war? Isn't that about as long as Israel's "war" against Hizbollah last year? Seems kind of odd. Hopefully Lebanon's "victory" will be more substantial than Israel's supposedly was, but somehow I doubt it.
Hooray for Lebanon! Finally someone shows some guts in fighting radical Islam. If only the US and UK would follow suit...
I agree about our problem in winning wars. Bush is always trying to appease the leftist media and 'rights' organizations instead of trying to win, and the left hates him anyway.
Hooray for Lebanon! Finally someone shows some guts in fighting radical Islam. If only the US and UK would follow suit...
I agree about our problem in winning wars. Bush is always trying to appease the leftist media and 'rights' organizations instead of trying to win, and the left hates him anyway. Wise up!
Hooray for Lebanon! Finally someone shows some guts in fighting radical Islam. If only the US and UK would follow suit...
I agree about our problem in winning wars. Bush is always trying to appease the leftist media and 'rights' organizations instead of trying to win, and the left hates him anyway. Wise up!