Islamist militants kill 11 Lebanese soldiers

Nahr Al Bared, Lebanon: Lebanese troops battled Al Qaida-linked militants in northern Lebanon on Sunday and at least 19 people were killed, 11 of them soldiers, security and medical sources said.

A cabinet minister said the clashes with the Fatah Al Islam group, which the government says is backed by Syria, seemed timed to try to derail UN moves to set up an international court to investigate political killings in Lebanon.

The soldiers were killed at Nahr Al Bared Palestinian refugee camp near Tripoli and in an attack on an army patrol in Al Qalamoun, just south of the city, a security source said.

Four Fatah Al Islam fighters were killed in the camp, which is home to 40,000 Palestinian refugees. Medical sources in the camp said four civilians, including two children, had also been killed and 45 wounded.

The army had tightened its grip around Nahr Al Bared camp since authorities charged Fatah Al Islam members with two bus bombings in a Christian area near Beirut in February. Three civilians were killed by the bombs.

Cabinet minister Ahmad Fatfat, speaking in Tripoli, linked the clashes to what he said were efforts to derail UN moves to set up the international tribunal for suspects in the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Al Hariri.

A UN probe has implicated Syria and Lebanese officials in the Hariri killing. Damascus denies any involvement in the killing. It also denies any link to Fatah Al Islam which, according to its leader, has no organisational links to Al Qaida but agrees with its aim of fighting 'infidels'.