Fighting halts at second Palestinian camp in Lebanon

AIN AL-HILWEH, Lebanon, June 4 (Reuters) Islamist gunmen killed two Lebanese soldiers at a Palestinian refugee camp in south Lebanon today in the first fatal spillover of fighting between the army and al Qaeda-inspired fighters in the north.

Two fighters of the Sunni militant group Jund al-Sham were also killed in rifle, grenade and mortar exchanges that erupted at an entrance to the big Ain al-Hilweh camp near the southern port city of Sidon, security and military sources said.

Three soldiers and two civilians were hurt in the fighting, which began on Sunday night and calmed later today.

The clashes were the latest jolt to stability in Lebanon, where a political crisis pitting the Western-backed government against Syria's Lebanese allies has paralysed state institutions since last year's war between Israel and Hezbollah guerrillas.

Hundreds of civilians fled Ain al-Hilweh, a sprawling shantytown perched on a hillside above Sidon, 42 km south of Beirut.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction dominates the camp, but small Islamist groups have a foothold there and in several other refugee camps in Lebanon.

The army has battled one such Sunni group, Fatah al-Islam, for more than two weeks at the Nahr al-Bared outside Tripoli, 100 km north of the Lebanese capital.

The Ain al-Hilweh clashes were the first to erupt in other Palestinian camps in Lebanon, where few people support Fatahal-Islam. Its pro-Qaeda ideology of global jihad is at odds with the national struggle waged by the Islamist Hamas movement, as well as with the secular ideas of Fatah and leftist groups.

Palestinian factions held emergency talks with the army command in Sidon to ease tensions. Jund al-Sham fighters then ceded their positions to gunmen from other Islamist groups.

''The army asked the Palestinian factions to seek a halt to attacks on the army, saying that if they don't stop, it would act firmly,'' said a Palestinian source who attended the meeting.

There was no demand to hand over militants, he added.

Some 500 Palestinian and Lebanese civilians who had fled the fighting took refuge at the municipality compound in Sidon.

''We fear what happened at Nahr al-Bared will happen here,'' said Hani Bernawi, 31. ''They (Jund al-Sham) are just a gang who came here to mess things up and and destroy our security.'' KINDRED SPIRITS Jund al-Sham, made up of a few dozen Palestinian and Lebanese militants, has sided with Fatah al-Islam, though they do not appear to have organisational links.

Its fighters attacked the army just hours after a Fatah al-Islam commander named Abu Riyadh, who had previously belonged to Jund al-Sham, was killed in Nahr al-Bared.

The violence at Nahr al-Bared is Lebanon's worst internal fighting since the 1975-1990 civil war. At least 113 people have died and about 25,000 of the camp's 40,000 refugees have fled.

After the Ain al-Hilweh fighting began, an army statement urged ''all Palestinian factions and Lebanese politicians to take a decisive stand so that these camps do not become a source of civil strife that aims to hit the nation's stability''.

Machinegun fire and explosions echoed from Nahr al-Bared, where outgunned Fatah al-Islam fighters have refused to surrender. But the fighting was less intense than in the previous three days of army assaults on militant positions.

Prime Minister Fouad Siniora's government sees itself at war with terrorists backed by Damascus, which rejects the charge. Secular Syria says Fatah al-Islam's leaders are on its wanted list and that such groups threaten its own security.

Eleven soldiers have been killed in Nahr al-Bared since Friday, bringing the military death toll there to 45, while more than 20 people -- militants and civilians -- were killed. Fatah al-Islam said it lost five fighters and about 36 in total.

While the army has not entered the camp's official boundaries, it has captured the militants' positions on its outskirts, confining militants to about a third of the camp.

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

REUTERS AE KN1825