Sniper kills Lebanese soldier in camp battle

BEIRUT, Aug 19 (Reuters) A sniper shot dead a Lebanese soldier during fighting at a Palestinian refugee camp in north Lebanon, a military source said today.

The shooting yesterday at the Nahr al-Bared camp took to 137 the number of soldiers killed since May 20 in fighting between the army and Islamist militants, the source said.

At least 100 militants of the al Qaeda-inspired Fatah al-Islam group have also been killed along with 41 civilians in Lebanon's worst internal violence since the 1975-1990 civil war.

Much of the Nahr al-Bared camp has been destroyed in the fighting. The military kept up an aerial bombardment today, witnesses said. An army helicopter fired at least one rocket at the camp.

Most of Nahr al-Bared's 40,000 residents fled in the early days of the battle to the nearby Beddawi camp.

The army accuses the militants of triggering the conflict by attacking army positions on May 20. Fatah al-Islam, which shares al Qaeda's ideology, has refused to give in to army demands for an unconditional surrender.

Fatah al-Islam says it has no organisational ties to al Qaeda.

The conflict has added to instability in Lebanon, where six UN peacekeepers and two anti-Syrian lawmakers have also been killed in attacks in the past eight months. A political crisis has also paralysed normal government in Lebanon since November.

REUTERS JT ND1410