The chief of Fatah al-Islam, Shaker Abssi, had been killed by Lebanese army during the fighting at Nahr al-Bared refugee camp, the official National News Agency (NNA) reported on Monday.
The report said that Abssi, founder of the group, had been killed along with five gunmen by Lebanese army tank fire that targeted a training sector in the seaside camp.
The troops, during a recent combing operation in the camp, called on the entrenched gunmen to give up, but they responded with a volley of gunfire, said the report, adding that the soldiers attacked back with tank fire that killed Abssi and the other gunmen.
Meanwhile, the local Naharnet news website quoted a source at the hospital as saying that Abssi's wife identified his corpse at the public hospital in the northern town of Tripoli Monday.
However, DNA tests are underway and results will be announced in no more than 48 hours, the source added, stressing that "this is a judicial procedure."
Earlier on Sunday, the Lebanese army totally took control of Nahr al-Bared after fighting the Fatah al-Islam militants holed up there for over three months.
It was the bloodiest internal violence since the Lebanese 1975- 1990 civil war, and up to 300 people including more than 150 army soldiers were killed during the fighting.
Source: Xinhua
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