Lebanon army pounds camp, militants vow to fight on

Lebanese troops pounded suspected positions of Al-Qaeda-inspired militants to dislodge them from their hideouts at a Palestinian refugee camp yesterday but the group vowed it would not surrender.

Amid the constant thud of explosions and crackle of machinegun fire, smouldering fires and plumes of black and white smoke billowed from many of the camp's bombed-out buildings.

Soldiers fired barrages of artillery shells and mortar bombs, leveling the camp's two highest buildings and leaving others in smoking ruins.

A French-made Gazelle army helicopter fired two rockets and machinegun barrages at targets on the camp's coastal side by the Mediterranean, and later two helicopters buzzed over the camp.

The army has been battling the Fatah al-Islam militants since May 20 in Lebanon's worst internal violence since the 1975-1990 civil war. The Lebanese government says the militants triggered the fighting when it attacked army positions around the camp and Lebanon's second largest city, Tripoli.

Prime Minister Fouad Siniora said there was no option for the militants but to surrender and give up their arms.

Security sources said six soldiers had died in fighting between Friday and yesterday, bringing the total death toll in the two-week conflict to 106, of whom 41 are soldiers. At least 16 people were killed inside the camp on Friday, but it was unclear whether they were militants or civilians.

A delegation of Palestinian clerics appealed for a truce to transport the wounded to hospitals and to bury the dead.

On Friday, elite troops seized three key Fatah al-Islam positions and destroyed sniper nests on the camp's northern and eastern edges. Many of the militants are foreign Arab fighters.

A military source said the army also destroyed several structures overlooking its positions on the camp's edge.

While the army has not entered the camp's official boundaries, it has encroached on the militants' positions on Nahr al-Bared's outskirts, confining them to specific points.

Nahr al-Bared was set up as a temporary tent camp to house Palestinian refugees fleeing their homes after the creation of Israel. Since then, the camp's official perimeters have widened to accommodate its ballooning population.

A 1969 Arab agreement prevents the army from entering Lebanon's 12 Palestinian camps, home to 400,000 refugees.

More than 25,000 of Nahr al-Bared's 40,000 refugees fled the camp in the past two weeks due to increasingly desperate humanitarian conditions. Hundreds of people have been wounded.