Two more Lebanese troops die in battle for camp

NAHR AL-BARED, Lebanon, July 16 (Reuters) Lebanese troops advanced deeper into a Palestinian refugee camp today, seeking to finish an 8-week standoff with al Qaeda-inspired militants during which at least 223 people have been killed.

Troops battling Fatah al-Islam militants moved into Nahr al-Bared camp in north Lebanon yesterday for the first time since fighting there erupted on May 20.

But the military lost its 100th soldier while doing so and another two were killed overnight, security sources said. At least 81 militants and 40 civilians have also been killed in the worst violence since Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil war.

The toll includes those killed in limited clashes in other areas of the country.

The advance marked a major step for the army in the battle to crush the militants and a rare venture by troops into a Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon.

A 1969 Arab agreement banned Lebanese security forces from entering Palestinian camps. The agreement was annulled by the Lebanese parliament in the mid-1980s but the accord effectively stayed in place.

Commandos exchanged automatic rifle fire and grenades with militants at buildings and alleyways leading to the centre of Nahr al-Bared while army artillery and tanks pounded other areas. Fearing deadly booby-traps, troops blew up several buildings as they advanced towards the centre of the camp.

The military has stepped up pressure on the besieged camp since Thursday, anxious not to get sucked into a war of attrition with the well-trained and well-armed militants.

Fatah al-Islam is made up of a few hundred mainly Arab fighters who admit admiration of al Qaeda but claim no organisational links.

Some of the fighters have fought in or were on their way to fight in Iraq.

The vast majority of Nahr al-Bared's 40,000 refugees had fled in the early days of the fighting which has left the camp in ruins.

The violence has further undermined stability in Lebanon, where a paralysing 8-month political crisis has been compounded by bombings in and around Beirut, the assassination of an anti-Syrian legislator and a fatal attack on UN peacekeepers.

Lebanese politicians are meeting in France in an effort to find ways to resume dialogue after months of political stalemate.

Reuters KK GC1426