Two Lebanese troops died on Thursday at a Palestinian refugee camp where the army has clashed with Islamists for more than two months, a military spokesman said. "Two soldiers were killed in the confrontations today," the spokesman told AFP. He earlier said one of the dead was an officer.
The deaths brought to 127 the number of soldiers died since the fighting between the army and the Al-Qaeda-inspired Fatah al-Islam started in northern Lebanon on May 20. "The battles continue... and the soldiers continue to progress very slowly because there are a lot of mines and booby-traps" left behind by the Islamists, the spokesman stated.
Five rockets fired from inside the besieged seafront camp also damaged a power station near the battered shantytown, a local official said. "Five Katyusha rockets fired from Nahr al-Bared camp hit the Deir Ammar power station causing minor damage," Ahmad Eid, the head of Deir Ammar municipality, told AFP. "The oil reservoirs were not hit."
According to him, one rocket landed near one of the reservoirs, causing a fire that was quickly put out. Another rocket struck a building and the three others landed in the grounds of the facility. Eid said the power station was shut down after the rocket attack.
Witnesses reported intense fighting early on Thursday between soldiers and Fatah al-Islam who still control a small area of Nahr al-Bared.
