Lebanese troops pounded suspected positions of al Qaeda-inspired militants to dislodge them from their hideouts at a Palestinian refugee camp on Saturday but the group vowed it would not surrender.
"There is no way we will give up our weapons because it is our pride. We cannot even contemplate surrendering," Abu Salim Taha, spokesman for the Fatah al-Islam militants, said from inside Nahr al-Bared camp in north Lebanon.
Amid the constant thud of explosions and crackle of machinegun fire, especially on the southern part of the camp, smouldering fires and plumes of black and white smoke billowed from many of the camp's bombed-out buildings.
Soldiers fired barrages of artillery shells and mortar bombs, levelling the camp's two highest buildings and leaving others in smoking ruins.
A French-made Gazelle army helicopter fired two rockets and machinegun barrages at targets on the camp's coastal side by the Mediterranean.
"The situation in the camp is very miserable ... The shelling was concentrated on all the roads in the camp. More than 60 per cent of the camp has been destroyed," said camp resident Abu Darwish.
The army has been battling the Fatah al-Islam militants since May 20th in Lebanon's worst internal violence since the 1975-1990 civil war. The Lebanese government says Fatah al-Islam triggered the fighting when it attacked army positions around the camp and Lebanon's second largest city, Tripoli.
The army appealed to refugees remaining in the camp to "be patient and to expel those criminals from among you". It also renewed its calls on militants to surrender, saying they would face a fair trial.
Security sources said two soldiers died in overnight fighting and one more died on Saturday, bringing the total death toll in the two-week conflict to 106, of whom 41 are soldiers. At least 16 people were killed inside the camp on Friday, but it was unclear whether they were militants or civilians.
A delegation of Palestinian clerics appealed for a truce to transport the wounded to hospitals and to bury the dead.
"Since yesterday morning, the shelling has been ongoing all over the camp. Two shells fell on the building I'm in now. Several buildings have collapsed," said a Palestinian resident inside the camp. There's only one clinic with one doctor left. There's no electricity, bread or medicine."
On Friday, elite troops seized three key Fatah al-Islam positions and destroyed sniper nests on the camp's northern and eastern edges. Many of the militants are foreign Arab fighters.
A military source said the army also destroyed several structures overlooking its positions on the camp's edge.
While the army has not entered the camp's official boundaries, it has encroached on the militants' positions on Nahr al-Bared's outskirts, confining them to specific points.
Nahr al-Bared was set up as a temporary tent camp to house Palestinian refugees fleeing their homes after the creation of Israel. Since then the camp's official perimeters have widened to accommodate its ballooning population.
A 1969 Arab agreement prevents the army from entering Lebanon's 12 Palestinian camps, home to 400,000 refugees.
More than 25,000 of Nahr al-Bared's 40,000 refugees fled the camp in the past two weeks due to increasingly desperate humanitarian conditions. Hundreds of people have been wounded.
Lebanon's anti-Syrian cabinet say Fatah al-Islam is a Syrian tool, but Damascus denies any links to the group and says its leader, Shaker al-Abssi, is on Syria's wanted list.
Abssi has said he follows al Qaeda's ideology, but has no direct links to Osama bin Laden's network. Many of his estimated 300 gunmen have fought in Iraq, Palestinian sources say.