Palestinians say militants withdrawn, suspicious

BEDDAWI CAMP, Lebanon, May 25 (Reuters) They appeared as if from nowhere. They prayed and read the Koran on the streets, zig-zagged on motorbikes through the camp. Some said they steeled themselves swimming in freezing streams; but rarely did they speak to anyone.

People fleeing Lebanon's Nahr al-Bared refugee camp paint a curious picture of the al Qaeda-inspired Fatah al-Islam group that has brought the wrath of the Lebanese army down upon them over the last week. Pious Muslims, some in Islamic gowns, others in military fatigues, fellow Arabs, but somehow set apart.

''This group never hurt people in the camp but they never interacted with anyone more than to say Assalamu Alaikum (the Muslim greeting),'' Ghassan Ramadan, a 40-year-old teacher, told Reuters.

Lebanese authorities, vowing to stamp out the militant group blamed for bus bombings, have killed at least 22 guerrillas in the worst factional fighting since a 1975-90 civil war. At least 32 soldiers have died. Dozens of civilians, caught in crossfire and shelling at the camp, are believed to have perished.

Not much is known about the group, which numbers a few hundreds and has scant political support in Lebanon.

''They used to pray in the street,'' said a girl at the UN school in Beddawi who did not want to be identified.

''We saw them in the street, reading the Koran all day. Some wore suicide belts. They had many motorbikes and zigzagged with them around the camp,'' said Abu Ali, a 43-year-old taxi driver at the school, where many refugees are now staying.

Many refugees trickling out to the nearby Beddawi camp to escape worsening living conditions in Nahr al-Bared said they became wary of the militants after their mysteriously increased presence over past months.

Some refugees said they were mainly concentrated on the outskirts of the camp, others said they rented homes in the camp's centre and married single elderly women from the camp.

But all agreed the militants, of various Arab nationalitites, rarely spoke to anyone.

As characteristic of more religious Muslims, the men kept their beards long and wore Islamic gowns. Some also wore military fatigues.

''WE KNEW IT WAS COMING'' Fatah al-Islam, an offshoot of the pro-Syrian Fatah Uprising group, have been blamed for twin bus bombings in February at a Christian area near Beirut which killed three people.

Some refugees said the trouble started from there.

''We never used to be scared of them but then you saw how the media attacked them in recent months. So of course, we knew this day was coming,'' said Wajdy Khodr, referring to the fighting.

Umm Adham, who lived near what used to be Fatah Uprising's main office, said the militants would often train by swimming in freezing water in winter and offered children at a nearby school crisps and sweets and read Koran to them.

''I used to stay out till midnight but then the militants would be lurking furtively in the alleyways which would scare me so I stopped staying out late,'' she said.

Khodr said if the militants saw a drunk man or one hassling women in the street, they would quietly rebuke them.

Other refugees offered more sinister stories.

An ambulance driver, Samer Waked, 32, who was sheparding refugees out of the camp, said the militants were discouraging them from leaving.

''They were saying 'Where's your pride? Stay and defend your Islam,'' Waked said.

Reuters SLD VV0842