Lebanese forces unleashed barrages of artillery and tank shells Wednesday at armed Islamists in a Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon, witnesses and security officials said. In some of the heaviest bombardment of Nahr el-Bared in weeks, army cannons fired shells at a rate of 8 to 10 every minute at suspected Fatah Islam positions inside the camp.
The shelling could be heard in the nearby port city of Tripoli for several hours before it subsided around mid-morning, witnesses said, according to the AP.
The army action, which began at dawn Wednesday, follows days of low intensity fighting during which soldiers continued to push their way deeper into the camp. A senior military official said Wednesday that two troops died in military operations a day earlier, raising to 118 the number of troops killed since fighting broke out in the camp on May 20.
Security officials said the army shelling on Wednesday had mainly targeted the Saasaa neighborhood of the camp, where remaining militants are thought to be hiding in underground shelters and bunkers.
The state-run National News Agency said the shelling destroyed a number of buildings and that troops stormed a shelter, killing several fighters hiding inside. It said two Katyusha rockets were fired from inside the camp, landing in farm fields a miles north without causing casualties.
