Lebanese troops shelled al Qaeda-inspired militants entrenched in a Palestinian refugee camp today and three soldiers died in the heavy battles, security sources said.
They said 21 soldiers were also wounded in today's fighting in which machine gun fire reverberated and heavy artillery shelling rocked the camp from early morning. Heavy black smoke billowed from many of the squalid Nahr al-Bared camp's bombed-out buildings, some riddled by bullets and punctured by shells.
"The army is trying to control positions that the militants are using to target the army," a military source said. At least 118 people, including 50 soldiers and 38 militants, have been killed since the fighting began on May 20th - almost three weeks ago - making it Lebanon's worst internal violence since the 1975-1990 civil war.
Only a few thousand of the 40,000 residents remain in the coastal camp which is short of food, water and electricity. "I saw at least 17 civilian homes destroyed. An oil refinery warehouse and at least five cars were burning," said Mahmoud Abu Jihad, a resident in the camp. Another camp resident, Milad Badran, said: "The army's bombardment is haphazard and is hitting civilian areas.
It is impossible to describe the humanitarian situation." The latest mediation efforts by Lebanese Islamists to try to convince the militants to surrender have so far had no success.
But Lebanese sources said the Islamic Action Front, which includes Sunni politicians and clerics, and a grouping of Palestinian clerics, would continue efforts to find a solution.
"We are trying in every way to convince them, even using Islamic intellectual arguments and sharia (Islamic law) that this is not the right way," the Front's leader Fathi Yakan said.
Only a few of the 40,000 residents now remain in a camp short of food, water and electricity.
At least 115 people, including 47 soldiers and 38 militants, have been killed since the fighting began, making it Lebanon's worst internal violence since the 1975-1990 civil war.
"There is no movement between the camp's neighbourhoods because some shells are falling in civilian areas. The basic necessities of life aren't available," a resident of the camp, on the north Lebanese coast, said by telephone.
The latest mediation efforts by Lebanese Islamists to try to convince the militants to surrender have had no success.
But Lebanese sources said the Islamic Action Front, which includes Sunni politicians and clerics, and a grouping of Palestinian clerics, would continue efforts to find a solution.
The fighting began on May 20 when the militants attacked army units deployed around Nahr al-Bared after one of their hideouts in a nearby city was stormed.
Lebanon is already struggling with a 7-month-old political crisis, and there are fears that fighting could spread.
Deadly clashes have erupted at Lebanon's largest Palestinian refugee camp in the past week, and five bombs have rocked civilian areas in and near Beirut since May 20th.
Prime Minister Fouad Siniora told the French television station TV5 on Friday that the army was holding back to preserve civilian lives.
"That's why this battle is taking longer; and it's worth pointing out that these terrorists are well-equipped and well-trained and persistent."
Fatah al-Islam was officially formed late last year. Its leader, veteran Palestinian guerrilla Shaker al-Abssi, says he shares the same ideology as al Qaeda but has no organisational links with the group. Many of his men are Arab fighters from other countries, some of whom have fought in Iraq.