Three soldiers were killed in combat on Monday as Lebanese troops advanced on militants at a Palestinian refugee camp where the army made major pushes after a month of fighting.
A Lebanese security source and a Palestinian political source said the army appeared to be close to its main goal of crushing all of Fatah al-Islam's positions on the outskirts of the coastal Nahr al-Bared camp in northern Lebanon.
"The army is close to controlling all the areas outside the (official) boundaries of the camp," the security source said, expecting the operation to end in the next few days. "It is not going to enter the camp."
A Palestinian source said efforts were underway to arrange a ceasefire that would put the army in full control of all the camp's outskirts and leave the militants restricted to a small part of it. Negotiations would then begin over the fate of the remaining militants.
Witnesses said battles raged between the army and the militants at the camp. Army shells crashed into the battered settlement, sending smoke billowing from cinderblock buildings. "We achieved the destruction of the Samed position on the north-eastern side of the camp yesterday and the Lebanese flag now rises from there," a military source said.
He later said troops were metres away from two other key Fatah al-Islam positions, Naji al-Ali and Taawniyeh. The Samed complex, which had been used as a weapons store and training centre, was one of Fatah al-Islam's main positions. Three soldiers were killed and seven wounded in the latest battles, security sources said. The army later confirmed the deaths.
The army has slowly chipped away at the area controlled by the militants, without entering the camp's official boundaries. Security forces are barred from going into Lebanon's 12 Palestinian refugee camps under a 1969 Arab agreement.
The fighting is Lebanon's worst internal violence since the 1975-1990 civil war. At least 153 people, including 71 soldiers, more than 50 militants and 32 civilians, have been killed.