Lebanese Army Resumes Bombardment Of Camp

Heavy gunfire rang out from inside a bombed out Palestinian refugee camp Sunday as the Lebanese army pounded Islamic militants holed up inside during the third day of a military offensive aimed at crushing the al Qaeda-inspired group.

Plumes of white and gray smoke rose from the Nahr el-Bared camp as the army bombarded Fatah Islam militants with heavy artillery shelling. The militants appeared to be retreating deeper inside the Nahr el-Bared camp, but one of their leaders vowed that the group would not surrender.

Tanks and artillery pounded Fatah Islam positions on the northern edge of Nahr el-Bared, located on the outskirts of this northern Lebanese port city, in a wide area concentrated around 10 buildings.

According to an AP photographer near the camp, a Fatah Islam sniper could be seen moving from one blown up building to another, as Lebanese troops bombarded the damaged structure from where he was shooting.

Lebanese security officials said a Fatah Islam militant was firing rocket-propelled grenades at army positions from the minaret of a mosque. It was not clear if the army was going to strike the minaret.

Fatah Islam spokesman Abu Salim Taha, told the AP by cellular telephone that the heavy fighting was taking place on the north and northeastern edges of the camp. He said Fatah Islam militants ambushed an advancing Lebanese force, and pushed it a few meters back.

He said Fatah Islam leader Shaker Youssef al-Absi "is supervising the battle from an operations room." Taha added that five Fatah Islam members, including a senior leader, have been killed since Friday, when the latest army offensive began, and seven were wounded.

A senior Lebanese army officer said nine Lebanese troops have been killed since Friday, and several others wounded.

The casualties raised the army's deaths to 44 in two weeks. At least 20 civilians and about 60 militants have been killed, but casualties in the camp in the last two days were unknown because relief organizations were banned from entering.

The Lebanese government has demanded the group surrender, saying it's the only way to end the attack. But Abu Hureira, Fatah Islam's deputy commander, rejected the government calls.

"This is not only impossible, this is unthinkable. Our blood is cheaper than handing over our weapons and surrendering," said Abu Hureira, a Lebanese whose real name is Shehab al-Qaddour, said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press.

Officials said Sunday that a senior leader of Fatah Islam, Naim Deeb Ghali, who is also known as Abu Riad, had been killed in the fighting.

Abu Hureira confirmed that Ghali was killed Friday, but would not say whether he was a senior Fatah Islam official, referring to him only as "a brother."

In other developments, the main road linking Tripoli with the province of Akkar and the Syrian border reopened Sunday for the first time since Friday. Vehicles were seen passing on the road that was closed for two days by Lebanese troops over fears of snipers.

A wounded Palestinian civilian also was seen being evacuated from the camp in a Palestinian Red Crescent Society ambulance. The man, in his 50s, suffered head and shoulder injury, according to reporters on the scene.

Meanwhile, about 30 Palestinian and Lebanese women who came from the nearby Beddawi Palestinian refugee camp demonstrated at the southern entrance Nahr el-Bared to protest the army's shelling.

Lebanese security officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to make statements to media, have said Nahr el-Bared had been strategically divided into three zones. The army was controlling one zone, the militants held another, while Palestinian civilians and guerrillas controlled the third and were refusing the militants sanctuary, they said.

The army alleged the armed militants had taken up positions in the camp mosques and humanitarian centers, holding civilians as "human shields." It was not clear how the military knew this or how many Palestinians were used as human shields. The militants have denied the accusation.