Battles raged around a Palestinian refugee camp in north Lebanon on Friday, killing 14 people, as Lebanese troops tightened the noose around al Qaeda-inspired militants entrenched there. At least 12 people were killed inside Nahr al-Bared camp as well as two soldiers, security sources said.
They said 18 soldiers were wounded but could not say whether the 12 who died inside Nahr al-Bared camp were militants or civilians. Security sources said elite forces seized several key positions of Fatah al-Islam militants and destroyed sniper nests on the northern edge of Nahr al-Bared while artillery batteries pounded the camp.
The army has been battling militants in the camp - many of them foreign fighters - since May 20 in Lebanon's worst internal violence since the 1975-1990 civil war. At least 84 people - 35 soldiers, 29 militants and 20 civilians - had been killed before Friday. Artillery and machinegun fire shook the camp from early morning. At times 155 mm shells exploded at a rate of 10 a minute and smoke billowed from buildings inside as fires raged.