Agence France-Presse,
Lebanese troops and Islamic extremists exchanged heavy fire for a 38th day on Tuesday as Spain mourned six peacekeepers killed in a “terrorist” attack in the south of the country.
Artillery units pounded Islamist positions in the wreckage of the Nahr al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp outside Tripoli, seeking to silence militant mortar crews and snipers hiding among the rubble, officers said.
“The terrorists of Fatah al-Islam regrouped in the southern part of Nahr al-Bared fired bursts of automatic fire and launched shells at our army positions around the periphery,” a military spokesman said.
“The army responded with heavy and precise artillery to silence these sources of fire and fortified its positions with blocks of concrete and sandbags.”
Two civilians were wounded by indirect fire from the camp, an officer at the scene said, the latest bloodshed in the deeply divided country amid fears the Sunni Muslim extremists are planning a wider campaign of violent unrest.
Lebanese officials have suggested that Al-Qaeda-inspired Fatah al-Islam is responsible for the car bombing of a UN convoy in southern Lebanon on Sunday in which six peacekeepers — three Colombian and three Spanish — were killed.
The bombing was the first fatal attack on the UN's peacekeeping force (UNIFIL) since its mandate to patrol the Lebanon-Israeli border was expanded after last year's war between Israel and the Hezbollah militia.
The dead paratroopers were given a full military funeral in an emotional ceremony led by Spanish Crown Prince Felipe and Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, as Spain marked a national day of mourning.
The prince, wearing full military regalia, and Princess Letizia, in a black suit, paid sombre tribute to the six men. Many wiped away tears while relatives of the Colombians draped a Colombian flag on the ground before their coffins.
Archbishop Francisco Perez, presiding the ceremony at the parachute brigade's base outside Madrid, said Spaniards felt powerless before such an “inhuman” attack but urged them not to feel hatred for the killers.
Judge Fernando Grande Marlaska ordered the soldiers not to be buried until an investigation has been completed.
Nobody has claimed responsibility for the attack, in which a car loaded with explosives was detonated by remote control as the peacekeepers' armoured vehicle passed by during a routine patrol near the Israeli border.
But Lebanese officials say Fatah al-Islam militants captured during six weeks of fighting at Nahr al-Bared have confessed to planning attacks against the UN force in a bid to sow instability in Lebanon.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice stressed Washington's support for Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora as they met in Paris.
She “emphasized our continued support as the government confronts the threat posed by violent extremism,” State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.
UNIFIL and the Lebanese army are also investigating the blast, and the Hezbollah militia, which has a major power base in southern Lebanon, said it was conducting its own probe.
Hezbollah has condemned the blast as an “act of aggression … aimed at increasing insecurity in Lebanon” and said it appeared to be the work of “highly qualified professionals.”
The bombing marked a dramatic escalation to the threat faced by UNIFIL troops and announced the arrival of Iraq-style roadside bombs in the region.
In response, Spain promised to rush equipment that gives advance warning of mines and remote-controlled devices to the Spanish contingent of UNIFIL.
Spain has nearly 1,100 troops serving in southeastern Lebanon near the border with Israel as part of UNIFIL, which has 13,225 soldiers from 30 countries.
The Lebanese army has vowed to crush Fatah al-Islam, a shadowy group of mainly Arab veterans of the Iraq war who found sanctuary in the self-administered refugee camp.
At least 162 people are known to have died in the fighting, including 82 soldiers and 60 militants, although precise figures are not available.
The violence is the worst in Lebanon since its 1975-1990 civil war.
