Two relief workers were killed and a Palestinian mediator wounded in fierce fighting today between Lebanese troops and al Qaeda-inspired militants at a Palestinian refugee camp.
Security sources said the two Lebanese Red Cross workers were killed and a third wounded when they tried to evacuate civilians caught up in the fighting between the army and Fatah al-Islam militants at Nahr al-Bared camp in northern Lebanon.
A Palestinian cleric, Sheikh Mohammad al-Hajj, was also wounded after he entered the camp to hold talks with the militants on ways to end the 23-day-old conflict.
Artillery rounds were fired at camp, and tank and machine gun fire strafed suspected militant hideouts. Militants retaliated with sporadic attacks of mortar bombs and rocket-propelled grenades.
Lebanon's army is not allowed into Palestinian camps under the terms of a 1969 Arab agreement.
At least 132 people have been killed, including 57 soldiers, in three weeks of fighting, the worst internal clashes since Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil war. Eleven soldiers died, and more than 100 were wounded in battles at the weekend.
The army says the militants triggered the conflict by attacking its positions around the camp and on the outskirts of the nearby city of Tripoli. But
Fatah al-Islam says it acted in self defence and has vowed to fight to the death.
Most of Nahr al-Bared's estimated 40,000 residents have fled to other nearby refugee camps, and about 80 more left today. Some 400,000 Palestinian refugees live in Lebanon, around half in 12 camps.