(11 Jun 2007)
Nahr El-Bared
1. Various of smoke rising from Nahr El-Barid Palestinian refugee camp
Beirut
2. Exterior of Presidential Palace
++MUTE++
3. Wide of meeting between Lebanese President Emile Lahoud and Palestinian Social Affairs Minister Saleh Zaidan
4. Mid of Lebanese President Emile Lahoud
5. Various of meeting
6. SOUNDBITE: (Arabic) Saleh Zaidan, Palestinian Social Affairs Minister:
"The solution we hope to achieve is bringing back stability to the camp. Fateh Al-Islam is a strange phenomenon within the Palestinian people. Our people cannot bear the consequences of the acts of this strange group. We condemned the assault on the Lebanese army and we consider it a crime that should be punished."
7. Wide of Zaidan in briefing
STORYLINE:
Lebanese troops exchanged sporadic gunfire with Islamic militants holed up in a Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon on Monday as the war against al-Qaida-inspired fighters entered its fourth week.
The intermittent fighting came a day after heavy clashes erupted when the Lebanese army stepped up its bombardment of Fatah Islam militants barricaded in the Nahr el-Bared camp on the outskirts of the northern city of Tripoli.
The leading An-Nahar newspaper reported Monday that "the Nahr el-Bared battle is headed toward a big escalation."
It said the Lebanese military had brought in new reinforcements, including more effective artillery and additional naval forces, while pro-Syrian Palestinian factions had joined Fatah Islam militants in their fight.
Sunday's clashes came a day after some of the heaviest fighting since June 1, when the Lebanese army - using tanks and artillery - launched a fresh offensive to drive out the Fatah Islam militants.
A senior military official told The AP on Monday that the army continues to expand its control in and outside the camp with the aim of tightening the noose around the Fatah Islam gunmen.
Saturday's fighting killed 11 soldiers, according to the same official, who said that 40 others were wounded, some seriously.
It was the highest casualty toll in a single day since fighting began on May 20 and the was worst internal violence to engulf Lebanon since the 1975-90 civil war.
The military official said 57 soldiers have been killed in the Nahr el-Bared fighting, while another two soldiers were killed in last week's clashes with Jund al-Sham militants in the Palestinian refugee camp of Ein el-Hilweh in southern Lebanon.
More than 130 people in total, including at least 60 Fatah Islam militants and 20 civilians, have been reported killed in the fighting in northern Lebanon.
Also, Lebanese security forces arrested four Lebanese men on Monday suspected of belonging to a militant Islamic group during raids on their houses in south eastern Lebanon, security officials said.
It was not immediately known if the four belonged to Fatah Islam.
Last week, state security officers captured three foreign militants - two Syrians and an Iraqi - during a raid on their house in eastern Lebanon.
The trio had confessed to belonging to al-Qaida and planning to stage attacks with car bombs, the state-run National News Agency said.
Meanwhile two local Red Cross workers were killed on Monday when their vehicle came under fire from inside Nahr el-Bared, hospital officials said.
The workers were killed in their vehicle as they tried to escort a Muslim scholar, who has been trying to mediate an end to fighting between the Lebanese army and Fatah Islam militants, out of the Nahr el-Bared camp, the officials said.
Red Cross officials did not immediately respond to phone calls made by The Associated Press.
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