SIDON (Lebanon), June 4: Deadly firefights in a Palestinian camp in south Lebanon opened a new front for the army on Monday as it battles to crush an Al Qaeda-inspired militia in a 16-day standoff in the north of the country.

Residents were plunged into panic by the gunbattles between the army and Sunni Muslim extremists which first flared late Sunday near Ain al-Helweh, the largest of Lebanon's 12 refugee camps in the southern city of Sidon.

Two soldiers and two militants were killed and 11 wounded, a military spokesman said, and dozens of families fled to safety before calm was restored later on Monday.

The fighting erupted as Lebanese troops again pounded Fatah al-Islam gunmen in the Nahr al-Bared camp near the northern port city of Tripoli in a standoff that has left more than 100 people dead.

In a bid to contain the latest unrest, the army deployed more armoured vehicles around Ain al-Helweh and boosted security in Sidon where schools were closed, many shops remained shut and traffic was slow.

“We cannot feel safe when there are lawless areas with armed Islamists,” complained businessman Mohamad Zein as hundreds of Palestinian refugees set up temporary homes in the city's parks.

The fighting pitted troops against gunmen from Jund al-Sham (Soldiers of Damascus), a little known group mainly made up of Islamist Lebanese extremists, some of them wanted.

Palestinian factions, which have sole control over security in Ain al-Helweh as in all other camps across the country, were in contact with Lebanese authorities to try to end the confrontation, local officials said.

Police were later deployed at the entrance to the camp from Fatah, the mainstream Palestinian movement of president Mahmud Abbas.

The latest flareup has fuelled concerns the violence could spread to more of the 12 camps which hold more than half of the 400,000 Palestinians in Lebanon, mostly in conditions of abject poverty, and have become breeding grounds for extremism.

In all, 108 people have been killed in 16 days of bloodshed, the deadliest internal feuding since the 1975-1990 civil war that has added to tensions in a country already in the grip of an acute political crisis.

Jund al-Sham, which has no clear hierarchy or particular leader, is believed to have about 50 militants armed with assault rifles, mortars and rocket-propelled grenades.

In north Lebanon, army troops including about 1,000 crack commandos were tightening the noose around the militants holed up in Nahr al-Bared, where both sides are vowing to fight to the end.

After a lull in exchanges during the day, tanks and artillery launched a major bombardment on Monday evening against the squalid camp, where Fatah al-Islam is still holding out in the face of superior firepower.

“We are inflicting great damage on the Lebanese army,” Fatah al-Islam spokesman Abu Salim Taha told Al-Jazeera television on Sunday. “We will never surrender... we will fight till the last drop of blood.” Prime Minister Fuad Siniora has warned Fatah al-Islam to surrender or be wiped out.

Washington announced that it was considering sending more supplies to the Lebanese army after Congress last month approved a seven-fold increase in military assistance for $2007m to $280m.

“There are some additional items that are already under consideration that we are talking about with the Lebanese forces,” said US national security adviser Stephen Hadley. The earlier US aid package had already drawn strong criticism from Russia whose Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned of its potential to “destabilize” Lebanon.

The United Nations meanwhile launched an urgent appeal for 12.7 million dollars to help Palestinians displaced by the Nahr al-Bared fighting.—AFP