Lebanon army pounds camp, militants vow to fight on

NAHR AL-BARED, Lebanon, June 2 (Reuters) Lebanese troops pounded suspected positions of al Qaeda-inspired militants to dislodge them from their hideouts at a Palestinian refugee camp today but the group vowed it would not surrender.

''There is no way we will give up our weapons because it is our pride. We cannot even contemplate surrendering,'' Abu Salim Taha, spokesman for the Fatah al-Islam militants , told Reuters by telephone from inside Nahr al-Bared camp in north Lebanon.

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, levelling 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.

''Since yesterday morning, the shelling has been ongoing all over the camp. Two shells fell on the building I'm in now.

Several buildings have collapsed,'' said a Palestinian resident inside the camp. ''There's only one clinic with one doctor left.

There's no electricity, bread or medicine.'' 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.

''This phenomenon is that of a terrorist gang,'' Siniora told Dubai-based Al Arabiya television in an interview.

''This government and the army have sought over the past 14 days to find a solution that would allow them to surrender because what they have committed against the Lebanese army and the Lebanese state, makes it impossible to find agreement, or accord or attempt at a truce or compromise,'' he said.

Security sources said six soldiers had died in fighting between yesterday and today, 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 yesterday, but it was unclear whether they were militants or civilians.

APPEALS FOR TRUCE The army appealed to refugees remaining in the camp to ''be patient and to expel those criminals from among you''. It also renewed its calls on militants to surrender, saying they would face a fair trial.

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

Yesterday, 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.

Lebanon's anti-Syrian cabinet say Fatah al-Islam is a Syrian tool, but Damascus denies any links to the group and says its leader, Shaker al-Abssi, is on Syria's wanted list.

Abssi has said he follows al Qaeda's ideology, but has no direct links to Osama bin Laden's network. Many of his estimated 300 gunmen have fought in Iraq, Palestinian sources say.

REUTERS ABM RK2150