4 soldiers killed in Lebanon fighting
Wednesday, 18 July 2007
BEIRUT, Lebanon - Army troops are making "significant" gains in their long-running battle against al-Qaida-inspired fighters barricaded inside a Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon, security officials said Tuesday. But a senior military official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the media, said four soldiers were killed in fighting Monday. The body of a missing soldier also has been found, he said.
The latest deaths raise to 103 the army's death toll since the fighting broke out nearly two months ago.
The security officials, who also spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to make statements to the media, reported "significant progress" by the troops, saying that militants from the Fatah Islam group were now encircled in an area thought to be no bigger than 500 square yards. They did not elaborate.
Witnesses said the army was using armored bulldozers to push its way into the area where militants are thought to be still holed up. But gunfire and the impact of rocket-propelled grenades could still be heard from inside the camp Tuesday, suggesting that the militants continued to resist the army's advance.
An army statement issued late Monday said troops captured two militants while pursuing the fighters in the camp's old neighborhoods.
The conflict with Fatah Islam militants, which erupted May 20, is Lebanon's worst internal violence since the 1975-90 civil war.
The latest deaths raise to 103 the army's death toll since the fighting broke out nearly two months ago.
The security officials, who also spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to make statements to the media, reported "significant progress" by the troops, saying that militants from the Fatah Islam group were now encircled in an area thought to be no bigger than 500 square yards. They did not elaborate.
Witnesses said the army was using armored bulldozers to push its way into the area where militants are thought to be still holed up. But gunfire and the impact of rocket-propelled grenades could still be heard from inside the camp Tuesday, suggesting that the militants continued to resist the army's advance.
An army statement issued late Monday said troops captured two militants while pursuing the fighters in the camp's old neighborhoods.
The conflict with Fatah Islam militants, which erupted May 20, is Lebanon's worst internal violence since the 1975-90 civil war.