Lebanon army, militants fight on at refugee camp

NAHR AL-BARED, Lebanon, June 12 (Reuters) Heavy fighting raged today between Lebanese troops and al Qaeda-inspired militants at a Palestinian refugee camp, the battleground for Lebanon's bloodiest internal violence since the civil war.

Witnesses said the army's shelling was at its heaviest at the coastal Nahr al-Bared's northern entrance and fires raged inside the camp while Fatah al-Islam militants fired rockets at army posts on a nearby hill.

''The shelling is haphazard on the civilians. My cousin is lying dead in front of me and I can't move her,'' a hysterical Palestinian resident inside the camp told Reuters.

''There are civilians, children, that the army is shelling. I didn't leave the camp because where am I going to go ... to stay on the streets? We are not allowing the militants to pass through our streets, we've blocked our alleyways.'' A military source described the fighting as heavier than usual at the camp, where the army's battle with the Fatah al-Islam is now in its fourth week.

''There have been heavy clashes and the army has succeeded in moving in on the militants' positions, forcing them to flee,'' the source said.

At least 136 people, including 60 soldiers, have been killed in the fighting, the worst since the 1975-1990 civil war. Eleven soldiers died and more than 100 were wounded in battles at the weekend alone.

The army is battling Fatah al-Islam militants on the outskirts of the camp, home to 40,000 before the fighting forced thousands to flee, mostly to a nearby refugee camp.

Relief workers have been struggling to evacuate civilians still trapped inside the camp. Two Lebanese Red Cross volunteers were killed in the fighting yesterday. They were to be buried later today.

The fighting has further undermined stability in Lebanon, already paralysed by a seven-month-old political crisis. Deadly clashes also erupted last week at Lebanon's largest Palestinian refugee camp and a string of bombs have targeted civilian areas in and near Beirut since May 20.

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 acted in self defence and has vowed to fight to the death.

Lebanese and Palestinian Islamist politicians and clerics have so far failed to broker an end to the conflict.

REUTERS RKM RAI1905