Lebanese troops have detained a Yemeni militant who gave himself up after being spotted hiding in a field near a refugee camp where a three-month siege ended last week, a military source said on Sunday. "The Yemeni was captured at around 11 pm (2000 GMT) on Saturday in the village of Nabi Kzayber, in the Menniyeh region " some two kilometers (just over a mile) from the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp where Islamist militants put up a ferocious resistance to the army siege, the source said.| Terrified of being chased by the villagers who had spotted him, the unarmed and exhausted 24-year-old fled to the home of a Muslim cleric begging to be handed over to the army. The cleric called in the military. |
Troops have launched intensive search operations around Nahr al-Bared since the battle ended on September 2 with a desperate breakout attempt by the remaining militants. Soldiers have killed at least four militants who managed to break through army lines and captured around a dozen more, according to reporters
On Sunday, three military helicopters were focusing their search on a mountainous area between 10 and 50 kilometers (between six and 30 miles) north of the camp, a reporter said. Fatah al Islam militants were of several nationalities , including Saudi, Syrian, Yemeni, Algerian , Palestinian and Lebanese. A ranking police officer told the Saudi newspaper Okaz that 21 Saudis were involved with the Fatah al-Islam terrorist group, 12 of them were killed and nine arrested