Three Lebanese soldiers killed by die-hard camp militants

NAHR AL-BARED, Lebanon (AFP) - Three Lebanese soldiers were killed yesterday in sporadic gunfire between the army and Islamist militants holed up in a Palestinian refugee camp.

"Two soldiers were killed outright in the afternoon in the Nahr al-Bared camp," medical officials told AFP from the hospital in northern Lebanon where the bodies were received.

Earlier, an army spokesman said another soldier died in hospital after being critically wounded in a light weapons skirmish in the morning.

The latest deaths takes to 116 the number of Lebanese troops to have been killed in more than two months of fighting with the Fatah al-Islam militants, according to the army.

The total death toll from the battle that has been raging since May 20 has exceeded 200, according to estimates not taking into account the bodies of Islamists remaining inside Nahr al-Bared camp.

A lull in fighting earlier in the day had allowed the Lebanese forces to work on clearing a path towards the last patch of the seaside camp that is still held by the Al-Qaeda-inspired militants.

"The bombing varies in intensity while the troops continue to clear the ground by demining and clearing the debris of buildings destroyed by the battle," the military spokesman added.

But the exchanges of gun and automatic weapons fire increased in intensity by mid-afternoon, according to an AFP correspondent.

The army spokesman said the Islamists still controlled "between 200 to 300 metres (yards) of one side" of the camp and that the soldiers continued to progress, but "at a very slow pace."

"We have not stopped gnawing away territory," he added.

Almost all of the camp's 31,000 residents have been evacuated, as well as Palestinian militants not involved in the showdown.

However, around 20 women and 45 children related to the Islamists have remained inside the besieged settlement despite the military having blared messages to them with loudspeakers to leave the largely destroyed camp.

An army statement said troops had in their advance into the camp "seized large quantities of weapons, ammunition and explosives."

"We again call on the Islamists to surrender and to allow their families to leave," the statement said. Similar calls in the past have been ignored.

After more than two months of fighting, the Lebanese army is still struggling to overcome the last remnants of the Arab Islamists, who are armed with rockets and have booby-trapped alleyways of the camp with explosives.

The clashes are the worst in Lebanon since the 1975-1990 civil war.