Lebanese army keeps up pressure on Islamists

NAHR AL-BARED, Lebanon, June 5 (Reuters) Lebanese troops resumed their shelling today of a Palestinian refugee camp in north Lebanon where al Qaeda-inspired militants remained entrenched along with thousands of civilians.

Intermittent bursts of gunfire and shell explosions were heard through the day at Fatah al-Islam's base in Nahr al-Bared camp, a sprawling shantytown which has been pounded by army artillery in more than two weeks of fighting.

''We saw things we had never seen in life,'' a wounded woman evacuated from the camp yesterday told Reuters today. ''I spent five or six days without bread or water. We thought the ones who did not die from the shelling would die from hunger.'' At least 114 people have been killed in the Nahr al-Bared fighting, including 46 soldiers. The army says Fatah al-Islam triggered the conflict when it attacked the army on May 20.

The violence is the latest jolt to stability in Lebanon. A bomb yesterday near Beirut wounded seven people. It was the fourth blast in and around the capital since the start of the Nahr al-Bared fighting. The blasts have killed one person.

Mainstream Palestinian faction Hamas warned that fighting could spread to other camps, as it did on Sunday and yesterday when ilitants with a similar ideology to Fatah al-Islam's fought the army at Ain al-Hilweh camp in south Lebanon.

''We are seeking a way out of this crisis as soon as possible so that we don't all pay a heavy price,'' said Raafat Morra, Hamas spokesman in Lebanon. Some Fatah al-Islam fighters had surrendered to mainstream faction Fatah, a Fatah official said.

''This is one of several steps that would secure an end to this phenomenon,'' Fatah official Jamal Khalil told Reuters.

GUERRILLA WARFARE But a senior Fatah al-Islam commander denied any fighters had surrendered. ''These are lies. This is nonsense,'' Abu Hurayra told Reuters by telephone.

''They are launching a classical war, we are using guerrilla warfare. God willing, it (fighting) will be for months, if they want. As long as they continue, we will stay in our positions,'' he said. ''They will not advance an inch into the camp.'' A 1969 agreement prevents the army from entering Lebanon's 12 Palestinian camps, home to 400,000 refugees.

Palestinian factions including Fatah and Hamas have condemned Fatah al-Islam, which shares al Qaeda's ideology of global jihad and has fighters from across the Arab world.

''We fear the repercussions from lengthy military action because there is more than one side trying to sabotage Lebanon and spread the troubles to other places,'' Morra told reporters.

The government says Fatah al-Islam had instructed militants from the Jund al-Sham group at Ain al-Hilweh camp to take up arms Sunday and yesterday. Two soldiers were killed.

Jund al-Sham members could be seen in the streets but without weapons today. Some of the several hundred Palestinians who fled the camp began returning home.

About 27,000 of Nahr al-Bared's 40,000 refugees have fled, many of them to the nearby Beddawi camp. UNRWA, the UN agency that cares for Palestinians, has launched an appeal for 12.7 million dollars to meet the urgent needs of the displaced.

Up to 7,000 people remain in the camp, where unexploded shells litter the streets, said Virginia de la Guardia, spokeswoman for The International Committee of the Red Cross.

Rescue workers were trying to evacuate the wounded, she said.

''The ambulances are trying to get in but the fighting is still going on,'' she added. Nineteen camp residents, mainly women and children, were evacuated yesterday and 16 on Saturday.

Reuters AM DB2140