NAHR AL-BARED, Lebanon, Sept 3, 2007 (AFP) - The Lebanese army was hunting for fugitive militants on Monday after crushing an Islamist militia in a fierce gunbattle at a battered Palestinian refugee camp that ended a 15-week standoff.

Nahr al-Bared fell to a final massive military assault on Sunday after 105 days of fighting in a move widely seen as a victory for the army that could help ease tensions in the politically-divided country.

As the army swept the devastated shantytown in northern Lebanon for explosives and hunted down any fugitive members of the Fatah al-Islam militia, the bodies of two of the group's top leaders were identified.

Troops on Monday killed the Sunni extremist group's spokesman Abu Salim Taha who was spotted just north of Nahr al-Bared as he was trying to flee, a military source said.

News of his death prompted local villagers to fire celebratory shots, an AFP correspondent at the scene said.

Taha was among at least 38 militants killed and about 15 captured in the army assault on the camp which Prime Minister Fuad Siniora called the "biggest national victory over terrorists."

The dead also included Fatah al-Islam leader Shaker al-Abssi whose body was identified on Monday by his wife and daughter at the morgue of the state-run hospital in the northern port city of Tripoli.

"Shaker got what he had always sought, and we consider him a martyr," his brother Abdul Razzaq al-Abssi, an orthopaedic surgeon in Amman, told AFP.

"The life of this person was full of jihad and struggle. He had been chased all his life and people like Shaker have short lives."

Lebanese authorities said they will officially confirm the identity of those killed once DNA tests are completed sometime this week.

Bulldozers were removing sandbags from around Nahr al-Bared, which remained off-limits to civilians, while troops in armoured carriers cordoned off an area south of the camp and traffic on the main coastal highway to neighbouring Syria was diverted.

A military source said soldiers have found a large number of weapons and rockets in underground shelters where the militants, who were said to take their inspiration from Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network, had been hiding.

The army's battle with Fatah al-Islam was the bloodiest internal fighting in Lebanon since the end of the 1975-1990 civil war and was waged at a time of deep political crisis.

Lebanese newspapers hailed the army's "crushing victory" over the Islamist militia which first emerged in the camp late last year, and said it could could cement unity in the deeply divided country.

"Lebanon scores victory over terrorism," trumpeted the front-page headline of the pro-government newspaper Al-Mustaqbal.

The leading An-Nahar newspaper said the defeat of the Islamist fighters was "a serious victory... which shows that the army is capable of fighting terrorism and that the military enjoys the backing of all the Lebanese and their politicians."

"The wide political backing for the army was a positive development which can help establish an atmosphere of unity."

Lebanon has been in political deadlock since six pro-Syrian ministers resigned from Siniora's Western-backed government last year, with tensions heightened over the divisive issue of replacing the president by year's end.

"As Lebanon remained mired in political conflicts, the army achieved a crushing victory, with the backing of all its people," said the front-page editorial of the leftist As-Safir newspaper.

"This is a ray of light that opens the door for all parties to put aside their arrogance and insistence on monopolising the country, when it is impossible for any one single party to control or speak in the name of the nation."

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