Lebanon camp battle enters 4th week,3 soldiers die

NAHR AL-BARED, Lebanon, June 10 (Reuters) Fighting between the Lebanese army and al Qaeda-inspired militants in north Lebanon entered its fourth week today and three soldiers died from wounds sustained in the conflict.

A military source said the three deaths overnight raised to 55 the army's death toll in the north Lebanon fighting -- Lebanon's worst internal violence since the 1975-1990 civil war.

At least 42 militants from the Fatah al-Islam group and 31 civilians have been killed since fighting erupted on May 20 at the Nahr al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp.

The army says the militants triggered the conflict by attacking its positions around the camp and on the outskirts of the nearby city of Tripoli. Fatah al-Islam says it has been acting in self defence and has vowed to fight to the death.

''There is still extreme tension,'' the military source told Reuters. ''We are tightening our grip.'' Sporadic bursts of machinegun fire were heard today at the camp -- home to some 40,000 before the fighting forced thousands to flee, mostly to a nearby Palestinian camp.

The army pounded Nahr al-Bared yesterday with artillery in some of the heaviest fighting since the standoff began.

A Palestinian source in the camp said at least one civilian was killed yesterday but the toll could be higher. ''He was hit in the chest and bled to death because there were no ambulances,'' the source said.

Rescue workers have been unable to give an accurate death toll because of the difficulty of moving in the camp -- a sprawling warren of alleyways on the Mediterranean.

WANT TO GET OUT The Palestinian source said many people were unaccounted for after weeks of fighting which has destroyed much of the camp.

Relief workers estimate that 3,000 to 7,000 civilians are still inside. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said those trapped wanted to flee but organising a mass evacuation was impossible because of the fighting.

''There are many people who want to get out. But it is very difficult to group them in one place. So it's very difficult to get them out,'' ICRC spokeswoman Virginia de la Guardia said.

The army is not allowed into Palestinian camps in Lebanon under the terms of a 1969 Arab agreement.

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 20.

The Islamic Action Front, a Lebanese organisation grouping Sunni Muslim politicians and clerics, has been trying to persuade Fatah al-Islam fighters to surrender.

But Fathi Yakan, the leader of the Front, said his mediators had been unable to speak to Fatah al-Islam leader Shaker al-Abssi.

''I do not think those speaking in the name of the group are able to give a decision. The fate of (Abssi) is not known,'' Yakan told Reuters.

Abu Salim Taha, a Fatah al-Islam spokesman, told Reuters late yesterday that Abssi, a Palestinian, was still alive.

Abssi and his fighters, including Arabs from Saudi Arabia, Syria and Lebanon, share the militant Sunni Islamist ideology of al Qaeda but do not claim organisational ties to the network.

REUTERS SLD RN1436