Lebanese troops took control yesterday of a Palestinian refugee camp where they had been battling militants for more than three months, killing at least 31 fighters who tried to flee, security sources said.

Lebanese civilians chant slogans and wave national flags as they celebrate the army taking over of the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp in north Lebanon September 2, 2007.

Twenty-three more fighters from the Fatah al-Islam group were captured, 12 of them wounded militants detained after the army took over the Nahr al-Bared camp in north Lebanon, a security source said.

"The battle is over. The Lebanese army has seized the last positions of Fatah al-Islam in the camp," a senior security source said.

"Most of the terrorists were killed today. The others have been captured. A few might have escaped but the army is hunting them down," the source added.

The fate of Shaker al-Abssi, the Palestinian leader of the group which says it shares Al-Qaida's ideology but has no organizational ties to the network, was unclear.

Lebanese soldiers gesture on the outskirts of the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp in north Lebanon September 2, 2007.

The fighting has been Lebanon's worst internal violence since the 1975-90 civil war, killing more than 300 people.

Five soldiers were also killed yesterday, raising the army death toll to 157. At least 131 militants and 42 civilians have been killed. The army had initially estimated that only 35 active fighters remained in the camp before yesterday.

An army statement said the militants had tried to escape from the camp in the early hours of the morning.

They "attacked army positions in a desperate attempt to flee", the statement said, urging citizens to contact the army if they encountered suspect individuals.

At least three gunmen from outside the camp had also attacked an army position in order to help the fighters escape, security sources said.

Security forces patrolled the area, searching orchards and fields, while helicopters hovered overhead in a hunt for any militants who had managed to escape from the camp.

(China Daily via agencies September 3, 2007)