NAHR AL-BARED, Lebanon, June 14: The Lebanese army on Thursday said it has made advances against besieged Islamists at a Palestinian refugee camp, seizing an ammunition cache and detaining one of the fighters' medics.

Amid sporadic fighting, the army detained Palestinian doctor Omar Abu Merssi after he surrendered to a checkpoint outside the Nahr al-Bared camp in north Lebanon, Lebanese security sources said.

A Palestinian source said the doctor had first handed himself over to the mainstream Fatah movement inside the camp on Wednesday.

“The army was eager to take him in because it wants to know the whereabouts of the leader of the gang Shaker al-Abssi and his deputy Abu Hureira who have been reported to be wounded,” the source said.

A special forces unit earlier in the week destroyed the house of Abssi, leader of Fatah al-Islam.

Abssi was not in the house at the time, and his whereabouts remains unknown.

On Thursday, sporadic gunfire continued to echo around Nahr al-Bared.—AFP