Nearly all soldiers looked extremely relieved it was very clear the camp has been liberated. I saw Long columns of Lebanese army tanks & trucks leaving the area.

A sudden fire fight erupted in the afternoon.

About seven militants suddenly appeared, around half the main highway (the one leading right next to the camp), and attacked soldiers.

Five militants were killed when two escaped.

At the moment of the fight my translator and I were around three kilometers away from the place where it all took place. We couldn't see it, but we clearly heard - for about half an hour - sporadic machine gunfire and just about five loud explosions.
"Oh, don't tell me that it’s not over yet" my interpreter said.
"Oh please" I replied.
In a while it all went quiet again.

But the main road was closed for not less then two hours.

That clearly shows how volatile the situation is still here.

That was a very tiring day.

We met happy soldiers, though many of them had hearing problems.

They would tell us: “Oh Man, during these past weeks all these explosions fucked my ears up."
A lot of walking as we tried to get closer to the Fighting area & had to crossover mud and “Nahr al Bared River”; my shoes and pants got screwed.
In addition got stuck in an insane traffic jam. As if every motorized Lebanese wants to be around the camp.

”Nahr al Bared” is still off limits for everybody but the Lebanese army.

I have no clue when they are going to allow us in. Need some sleep now.

Big congratulations though to all the Lebanese soldiers who bravely fought Al Qaeda - the Army of Mordor!

Sahar Hussein al-Haideri, 45, a top Iraqi reporter working in the perilous Mosul region, who fearlessly wrote about efforts by extremist forces to take control of the city and foment sectarian conflict, was murdered outside her home on June 7.
Haideri reported for a Mosul newspaper, the Voices of Iraq news agency, and the Institute for War & Peace Reporting, IWPR, where she had participated in numerous training and exchange programs over the past three years.

Her most recent story was a moving feature on the stoning to death of a young Yezidi girl who had converted to Islam after falling in love with a Muslim boy. See "Honor Killing” Sparks Fears of New Iraqi Conflict.

Haideri had long been concerned about her security, and for the past year had contributed reports to IWPR under a pseudonym. Six months ago, her husband and four children moved to Damascus, and she had recently relocated to Syria herself.

She was on a brief visit back to her home in Mosul. Several individuals confronted her as she left her house on June 7 and shot her dead.

Earlier this week, Zakia Zaki, 35, a prominent Afghan woman journalist, and Sanga Amach, a 22-year-old television news presenter, were murdered in separate incidents in Kabul.

“Women journalists have demonstrated particular tenacity and bravery in Afghanistan, Iraq, Uzbekistan and other Islamic countries, reporting on the human costs of conflict and the efforts of mostly male-dominated power structures to undermine democracy,” said Anthony Borden, executive director of IWPR, an international not-for-profit organization which supports local journalists in conflict areas and maintains extensive programming in Iraq.

“Women are vital agents of democratic change in these societies, and the recent tragic killings demonstrate the depth and violence of opposition to their efforts,” he said.

“Our psychological state is unbalanced because we live and think in fear and worry, and always think about our destiny and that of our family members, relatives and friends,” Haideri told the UK Press Gazette earlier this year. “But I have never thought about quitting, as journalism is my life and I really love it.”

5 days ago I went to Aley to see the aftermath of the last blast. A number of boutiques have already made the reparations and are operational. 3 others are still working to rebuild their destroyed source of living. On my way back to Beirut I heard about a current blast at the Raoucheh area. Later on I learned the precise location. I went there, parked my car facing the military bath and start walking to the site where the explosion took place.

The day before I was accompanied by European visitors and was having a drink on the coastal terrace of Al Rawda, only a dozen meters away from the bombing that took the life of one more deputy, his son and 7 others…

The army had established a security zone and only a bunch of reporters and photographers were able to stand on the top of the civil defense vehicle inside the perimeter, with a view of the horror scene.  Others were posted higher on the hill trying to get a shoot or a hint about the victims and their identity. I always had a problem with the view on how the media professional behave at the source of the events. They all, without any exception get on site and you can meet all the actors of the media family present on location, ready to diffuse the hot spot.

In Aley in the morning, after 11 days of the hotspot, there was nobody from the media covering the effort done by the local population, working to forget and rebuild their losses. I am amazed where they find the source of energy to reconstruct what they have lost not for the first time. 

On Saturday I visited for the first time the highest Holy place for the Uniates – Druze population in the world.  Situated in the south east of Lebanon in the municipality of Hassbaya, just at the border with Israel. During the occupation period of 1982-2000 the local population didn’t suffer from insecurity or any economical weakness.

Since the liberation things have changed and the basic aspect for a living became more problematic. Last summer’s war eased the social pressures a bit. With the presence of the Lebanese army powered by the UN peacekeeping forces, the population of Hassbaya feels more secure regarding a better future. On my way back to Beirut, I crossed the region where, the day after, Lebanese militants fired rockets at Israel.

Western powers put their plan for a court to prosecute the murder of a former Lebanese prime minister before the U.N. Security Council on Friday, but Russia raised objections to its compulsory nature.

Sponsors the United States, Britain and France played down the Russian concerns and said they still expected their resolution setting up the special court, a highly divisive issue in Lebanon, to pass by next week.

The resolution responds to a Lebanese government request but the country's parliament has not approved the plan because its speaker, an opposition figure who disputes the legitimacy of the government, has refused to convene the chamber.

Despite warnings by Lebanon's pro-Syrian president, Emile Lahoud, and others that setting up the court could trigger a fresh wave of violence there, Western leaders say it is essential as a matter of principle to try Hariri's murderers.

And they shrugged off suggestions that bombings and fighting in Lebanon this week aim to derail the court.

A bomb in a suitcase has ripped through a building in the town of Aley, in the mountains east of the Lebanese capital.

Aley is a predominantly Druze town, popular with Arab holidaymakers as a summer resort.

The blast was the third in Beirut and the surrounding area since fighting broke out between the Lebanese army and Fatah al-Islam at a Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon on Sunday.

The first explosion struck Beirut's Christian district of Ashrafiyeh on Sunday night, killing one woman, and the second occurred in Verdun, a predominately Sunni Muslim quarter of the capital, on Monday wounding 10 people.

A faxed statement purportedly from Fatah al-Islam claimed the group had carried out the first two bombings, but a spokesman later denied any involvement.

The United States and Arab allies rushed military aid to Lebanon yesterday, boosting its strength before a possible army assault to crush Islamic extremists barricaded in a Palestinian refugee camp.

Palestinian factions were scrambling to find a negotiated solution to end the siege and avert what many fear would be a bloody battle over the Nahr el-Bared camp, where thousands of civilians remain in the line of fire.

The military was gearing up for a fight, rolling more troops into place around the camp in northern Lebanon, already ringed by hundreds of soldiers backed by artillery and tanks. Fatah al Islam has claimed to have more than 500 fighters, with automatic weapons, mortars and rocket-propelled grenades.

At least a dozen more armored carriers and a battle tank were seen headed for the area yesterday.

Sporadic gunfire at Nahr el-Bared camp kept tensions high, but a truce that has halted three days of heavy artillery and rocket bombardment since Tuesday held.

An all-out assault on the camp would risk sparking unrest and violence elsewhere in the country, where about 400,000 Palestinian refugees live, most in camps that are rife with armed groups.

A deputy Fatah al Islam leader, Abu Hureira, told the pan-Arab Al Hayat daily by telephone from Nahr el-Bared that "sleeper cells" in other Palestinian camps and elsewhere in Lebanon were awaiting word for a "violent response" if the army struck.

The U.S. military aid could also attract other fighters into what they see as a battle against the West and its allies. Extremist groups were already using the battle at the camp as propaganda.

A group billing itself as al-Qaeda's branch in Syria and Lebanon vowed "seas of blood" if the Lebanese army resumed its attack. In a video on the Web yesterday, a spokesman threatened bomb attacks on Lebanon's tourist industry.