By DPA
Nahr al-Bared (Lebanon) : A Lebanese warship Thursday shot and sank two inflatable boats carrying militants of the Fatah al-Islam group who were trying to flee the Nahr al-Bared camp in northern Lebanon, a Lebanese army spokesman said.
The camp has since Sunday seen fierce clashes between troops and militants of the Al Qaeda-linked group. It was not immediately clear if the latest incident signalled an official end to a fragile truce between the sides, which had been in place since Tuesday evening.
"The army spotted two inflatable boats carrying Fatah al-lslam terrorists who were trying to flee Nahr al-Bared," the spokesman said on condition of anonymity.
"The warships shot at the two boats and both sank in the sea," he added without elaborating.
Lebanese soldiers at the gate of the camp were early Thursday on full alert, preventing access to the settlement, while tanks were on standby in the vicinity.
By the morning, most of those civilians who wished to flee the settlement north of Lebanon's second city of Tripoli had already done so on foot or by car.
"Only the men are left inside the camp … women, children and elderly have left," Hassan Saheed, a resident who left the camp during the early morning, said.
International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) spokesman Vincent Lusser said, "We are planning to enter the camp later today to distribute medical and food supplies.
"We are waiting for army clearance," he added.
He estimated the number of those who have taken advantage of the truce and left the camp at between 13,000 and 15,000 – a third of the population that the ICRC says is 40,000. The United Nations had earlier said the camp was home to around 30,000 people.
Residents had earlier expressed fears that fighting would resume once it was believed that all those who wished to leave the camp were gone.
Meanwhile, in the area of Aley, 20 km east of Beirut, angry shop owners and residents were clearing away rubble from the previous evening's bomb blast.
"The people behind this are the Syrians. They are trying to destroy our summer season," said a Druze sheikh in the area.
Aley is a mountainous summer resort where many Arab tourists spend their vacations.
According to Lebanese security sources a number of people were rounded up in Aley for interrogation, among them Syrian construction workers.
"No official arrests were made but at least three to four Syrian workers along with two Lebanese were taken by the police for interrogation," the source said.
At least five people were slightly wounded by Wednesday evening's blast.
Walid Jumblatt, an anti-Syrian Druze leader, pointed the finger at Syria, which he said was trying to block a UN resolution due to set up a tribunal to try suspects in the 2005 killing of former Lebanese premier Rafik Hariri, which was widely blamed on Damascus.
"These bombs are planted because the Security Council is about to intervene and adopt the tribunal," Jumblatt said Thursday.
"This is why the Syrian regime and their agents are trying to terrorise the Lebanese free people," he added.
"I expect the explosions to continue … this is a plot by the Syrian regime to destroy the free democratic Lebanon and turn it into a second Iraq," he added.
Syria denies any involvement in the clashes in northern Lebanon but most anti-Syrian leaders have said Fatah al-Islam was set up by the Syrian intelligence forces to destabilize security in the country.
Lebanon has been divided between opponents of Damascus and pro-Syrian factions – including the Shiite militant group Hezbollah – largely over the creation of the international Tribunal regarding the Hariri assassination.