Lebanon army squeezes militants, 3 troops killed

NAHR AL-BARED, Lebanon, June 18 (Reuters) Three soldiers were killed in combat today as Lebanese troops advanced on Islamist militants at a Palestinian refugee camp where the army made major pushes after a month of fighting.

A Lebanese security source and a Palestinian political source said the army appeared to be close to its main goal of crushing all of Fatah al-Islam's positions on the outskirts of the coastal Nahr al-Bared camp in northern Lebanon.

''The army is close to controlling all the areas outside the (official) boundaries of the camp,'' the security source said, expecting the operation to end in the next few days. ''It is not going to enter the camp.'' A Palestinian source said efforts were under way to arrange a ceasefire that would put the army in full control of all the outskirts of the camp and leave the militants restricted to a small part of it. Negotiations would then begin over the fate of the remaining militants.

Witnesses said battles raged between the army and the militants at the camp. Army shells crashed into the battered settlement, sending smoke billowing from cinderblock buildings.

''We achieved the destruction of the Samed position on the northeastern side of the camp yesterday and the Lebanese flag now rises from there,'' a military source said.

MAIN POSITION The Samed complex, which had been used as a weapons store and training centre, was one of Fatah al-Islam's main positions.

Three soldiers were killed and seven wounded in the latest battles, security sources said.

The army has slowly chipped away at the area controlled by the militants, without entering the camp's official boundaries. Security forces are barred from going into Lebanon's 12 Palestinian refugee camps under a 1969 Arab agreement.

The fighting is Lebanon's worst internal violence since the 1975-1990 civil war. At least 153 people, including 71 soldiers, more than 50 militants and 32 civilians, have been killed.

At least 27,000 of Nahr al-Bared's 40,000 refugees have fled, mostly to the nearby Beddawi camp, since the fighting erupted on May 20.

Lebanese authorities have demanded that the militants surrender, but Fatah al-Islam has vowed to fight to the death.

Fatah al-Islam emerged late last year after its leader, Shaker al-Abssi, and some 200 fighters split from the pro-Syrian Palestinian faction Fatah al-Intifada (Uprising).

Lebanon's Western-backed government says Fatah al-Islam is linked to Syrian intelligence, a charge denied by Damascus and the group itself. Abssi has said he supports al Qaeda's ideas but has no organisational ties to Osama bin Laden's network.

REUTERS JK KN1651