The Lebanese army shelled militants cornered in small parts of a Palestinian refugee camp today.
Security sources said two more soldiers had died in the two-month-old battle at the Nahr al-Bared camp, raising the army death toll to 111 dead since fighting began on May 20th.
The Lebanese army has pushed slowly into the camp, fighting close-quarter battles with Fatah al-Islam after bombarding its positions with artillery and tank fire to force the group to surrender. At least 233 people have been killed in the conflict, Lebanon's worst internal violence since the 1975-1990 civil war.
Fatah al-Islam spokesman
Witnesses said the army concentrated its latest artillery shelling on pockets still held by Fatah al-Islam near the camp's main road and the northeastern part of the camp.
The militants fired two rockets in a repeat of similar attacks that have hit surrounding villages in the last few days.
At least 81 militants have been killed in fighting. Fatah al-Islam was estimated to have a few hundred mainly foreign Arab fighters at the outset.
A Fatah al-Islam spokesman said his group had hundreds of members willing to act as suicide bombers if the army did not stop its assaults.
Repeated mediation efforts, mainly by Palestinian faction leaders and clerics, have failed to end the fighting, in which 41 civilians have also been killed.
