So much for a mopping up operation

At this rate the world will have another 10,000 day war to add to the history books. Ha’aretz:

The Lebanese army is preparing to launch a final assault against Al-Qaeda-inspired militants holed up at a Palestinian refugee camp in north Lebanon, political and security sources said on Wednesday.

Troops have been battling Fatah al-Islam fighters at Nahr al-Bared for nearly eight weeks in Lebanon's worst internal violence - which has so far killed 205 people - since the 1975-1990 civil war.The army seized all militant positions on the outskirts of the camp last month but refrained from entering its official boundaries.
(…)
The sources said the army was concerned it was being dragged into a war of attrition with the militants dug in inside the narrow alleys of the camp and decided to move in to crush them after they refused repeated calls for surrender.

A soldier was killed by a sniper on Tuesday. At least 87 soldiers, 75 militants and 43 civilians have been killed in the fighting that began on May 20. The sources said the army deployed extra troops in the area and was expected to use helicopter gunships and naval boats in any assault on the coastal encampment. Three ambulances belonging to the Palestinian Red Crescent society entered the besieged camp to evacuate civilians still trapped inside who wished to leave.

I maybe wrong (and I am too lazy to search this morning) but it appears the Lebanese Army has lost more soldiers in 8 weeks of fighting to Fatah Islam than the Canadian forces have lost to the Taliban during their entire deployment.