U.N. Experts Enter Nahr al-Bared
U.N. workers and demining experts on Wednesday entered the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp devastated by a 15-week-long battle between the Lebanese army and Fatah al-Islam terrorists, a U.N. official said.
Hoda Samra said the group visited Nahr al-Bared camp to assess damage to buildings of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA) inside the shantytown still off-limits to civilians and the media.

"It was a quick exploratory mission to survey UNRWA buildings and water wells inside the camp" in northern Lebanon, she told AFP. "The buildings are severely damaged."

The U.N. team, escorted by army troops, was accompanied by a demining consultant from the Britain-based Mine Advisory Group (MAG), she said.

The delegation also included an engineer from the private construction firm Khatib and Alami which has been selected by the Lebanese government as a consultant for the reconstruction of Nahr al-Bared, another U.N. source said.

On Monday, Lebanon appealed for almost 400 million dollars in international aid to rebuild Nahr al-Bared after fighting in and around the camp between May 20 and September 2 cost nearly 400 lives, 163 of them soldiers and 222 militants.

All of Nahr al-Bared's estimated 30,000 residents have fled the camp to seek refuge in some of Lebanon's other 11 refugee camps, where they have been living in difficult conditions.(AFP)