EIN EL-HILWEH CAMP, Lebanon -
Fighting between al Qaeda-inspired militants and the Lebanese army spread to a second Palestinian refugee camp, where the two sides exchanged grenade and cannon fire, police said Monday. Two soldiers were killed.
The Islamic militants fired rocket-propelled grenades at army checkpoints on the edge of the Ein el-Hilweh camp, killing the two soldiers, police said. Troops fired back with cannon and machine gunfire that burned down several militant homes, Lebanese security and Palestinian officials said.
Also killed was a militant from another Islamic group, Asbat al-Ansar, that refused to join the fighting and was trying mediate an end to the confrontation, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not allowed to talk to the media. Five soldiers and at least one militant were wounded, police said.
The militants belong to Jund al-Sham, which has claimed responsibility or been blamed for a number of bombings and gunbattles, mainly in Lebanon and Syria. Syrian officials say the militant group is the most active in their country, while in Lebanon, they are believed to number in the dozens.
At a refugee camp in northern Lebanon, another militant group kept up their 16-day battle with the army. The sound of gunfire tapered by Monday morning, suggesting the army was conducting commando operations against militants of Fatah Islam inside the Nahr el-Bared camp.
The relentless bombardment at Nahr el-Bared has angered Palestinians in some of Lebanon's 11 other refugee camps, threatening the spread of violence.
A senior Fatah Islam commander, Abu Hureira, said the Jund al-Sham militants had attacked soldiers in the southern camp on their own initiative. Hureira also said Fatah Islam has its own militants in Ein el-Hilweh -- the largest Palestinian refugee camp -- and pledged to take his fight there.
The army has moved tanks and armored carriers into the Nahr el-Bared camp in a push to crush the Fatah Islam militants, who first appeared in Lebanon last fall and are suspected of having links to al-Qaida.
On Monday, 12 more armored carriers, five trucks carrying 20 soldiers each and several small military vehicles were spotted heading toward the camp on the outskirts of the port city of Tripoli.
Many in Lebanon believed the army would be able to quickly crush Fatah Islam inside Nahr el-Bared, but after several days of fierce battles using artillery and tanks, the troops continued to face strong resistance.
A senior Lebanese army officer said nine Lebanese troops have been killed at Nahr el-Bared since Friday, raising the army's death toll there to 45. Forty troops were also wounded over the weekend.
At least 20 civilians and about 60 militants have also been killed, but casualties from the last four days were unknown because relief organizations were banned from entering Nahr el-Bared.
In an effort to end the new fighting at Ein el-Hilweh, a force of 150 Islamic militants who refused to fight will take control of security at two neighborhoods in the southern camp, said Palestinian and Lebanese officials involved in talks.
Palestinian groups were also to meet to try to ease tensions, said Col. Abu Walid Ashi a spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah party, which is considered moderate and is not related to Fatah Islam.
Similar attempts to negotiate an end to the fighting at Nahr el-Bared have failed. The Lebanese government has demanded that Fatah Islam surrender, but the group has rejected such demands.
