By Xinhua
Beirut : Two Lebanese soldiers were killed in ongoing clashes with Islamist militants at a Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon, the Lebanese army said Monday.
The two soldiers were killed while trying to crack down on Fatah al-Islam militants entrenched in the refugee camp of Nahr al-Bared, where fighting has been ongoing for three months, it said in a statement.
The camp witnessed heavy fighting since the morning in which artillery and heavy weapons were used. Lebanese army helicopters pounded some locations used by the militants inside the camp.
Lebanon’s air force helicopters on Monday launched a series of air raids on the militants’ bunkers and hideouts with bombs weighing 400 kg each, local LBC TV reported.
Earlier on Sunday, two soldiers had been killed in the clashes with Fatah al-Islam militants holed up in the camp, some 12 km north of Tripoli.
A total of 140 army personnel has been killed since the clashes with the Fatah al-Islam militants erupted on May 20. The bloodiest internal violence since the Lebanese 1975-1990 civil war has killed more than 200 people.