Lebanon bombs al-Qaeda supporters

BEIRUT, Lebanon - Fierce fighting erupted yesterday at a besieged Palestinian refugee camp as Lebanese troops resumed bombardment of al-Qaeda-inspired extremists barricaded inside. Three Lebanese soldiers were killed, a senior military official said.

Troops, backed by heavy artillery and tank fire, blasted suspected hideouts of the Fatah al Islam gunmen inside the Nahr el-Bared camp on the outskirts of the northern port city of Tripoli, as the battle against the extremists entered its fifth week, witnesses said.

The senior military official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not allowed to make official statements, declined to give details on how the three soldiers were killed but also said an undetermined number of soldiers were wounded.

In southern Lebanon, an explosion killed two people at Ein el-Hilweh, Lebanon's largest Palestinian camp, as members of another Islamic extremist group tried to prepare a bomb, Lebanese security officials said. Three others were wounded in the late-afternoon blast, which ripped through a tire shop in the camp.

Fatah al Islam emerged late last year after its leader and about 200 fighters split from Fatah al-Intifada, a pro-Syrian Palestinian faction based in Damascus. The fighting at Nahr el-Bared has claimed more than 150 lives - 72 soldiers, at least 60 Fatah al Islam extremists, and more than 20 civilians - since its outbreak May 20 - the worst internal violence in Lebanon since the 1975-90 civil war.

Most of the camp's 31,000 residents have fled, but the International Red Cross said 3,000 to 6,000 civilians remained behind.