Beirut: Two suspected Islamist militants were killed by Lebanese security forces on Saturday, including the leader of the Al Qaida-linked Fatah Al Islam group.
Abdul Rahman Awad, the Palestinian head of the Fatah AlIslam group and his aide, Gazi Faisal Abdullah, also known as "Abu Bakr", were killed in a gun battle in the town of Chtaura, in eastern Lebanon, officials said.
Awad was one of the most wanted men in Lebanon and his death will mark a major blow to Fatah Al Islam.
The group was little known before the summer of 2007 when it battled the Lebanese army for three months in the Palestinian refugee camp of Nahr Al Bared, northern Lebanon.
A total of 220 militants and 171 soldiers died in the fighting. Palestinian officials put the civilian death toll at 47.
The militant group has been blamed for a number of deadly blasts in recent years.
It is said to have killed more than a dozen Lebanese soldiers in the northern city of Tripoli two years ago, as well as attacking UN peacekeepers patrolling an area near Lebanon's border with Israel.
Lebanon's authorities have stepped up pressure on the group since the 2007 clashes, and last year, a Lebanese military court convicted 12 Fatah Al Islam members of carrying out terrorist acts, including a bomb attack on UN peacekeepers. Five of the men, including Awad, received life sentences in absentia.
Awad, 40, was born in the Palestinian refugee camp of Ein Al Hilweh, an infamous haven for militants in southern Lebanon.
He was married with several children. Known by the nick name, "Shahrour", some referred to him as "Abu Mohammad".
