NAHR AL-BARED, Lebanon—Lebanese troops battled militants linked to al Qaeda in northern Lebanon on Sunday and at least seven soldiers were killed, security sources said.
Three soldiers were killed and four more wounded in clashes with militant group Fatah al-Islam at the Nahr al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp near the northern port city of Tripoli, security sources said.
Four more soldiers were killed when militants from the same group attacked an army patrol in the Koura region of northern Lebanon, the sources said.
There were casualties among Fatah al-Islam militants at Nahr al-Bared, witnesses said. But it was too dangerous to enter the camp, home to 40,000 Palestinian refugees, because of fighting, they said.
Lebanese television station LBC said three militants were killed in the camp, whose residents were trapped in their homes.
The rattle of assault rifles and machine guns could be heard, and thuds from explosions rocked the Nahr al-Bared area after the fighting broke out before dawn. A military source said the clashes began after an army post on the outskirts of the camp came under fire from Fatah al-Islam gunmen.
Security forces also clashed with gunmen in Tripoli itself while trying to arrest suspects in a bank robbery, security sources said. Four members of the security forces were wounded in the clash in Lebanon's third largest city.
The Lebanese army cannot enter Palestinian refugee camps in line with a 38-year-old agreement but it had tightened its grip around the camp since authorities charged members of the group with carrying out a twin bus bombings in a Christian area near Beirut that killed three civilians in February.
Fatah al-Islam was formed last year by fighters who broke off from the pro-Syrian Fatah Uprising group.
Lebanese officials say the group is merely a front for Syrian intelligence in Lebanon, something both the group and Syria deny. Fatah al-Islam statements have appeared on Islamist Web sites known to publish al Qaeda statements.
Feeds