LEAD: 18 killed in fighting at Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon: report

NAHR AL-BARED, Lebanon, June 1 Kyodo

(EDS: UPDATING DEATH TOLL)

Eighteen people were killed in the fiercest fighting in two weeks as tank-led Lebanese troops overran several positions of al-Qaida-inspired militants at a Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon on Friday, Reuters reported.

Security sources reportedly said at least 16 people were killed inside Nahr al-Bared camp as well as two soldiers.

They said 60 civilians and 18 soldiers were wounded but could not say whether the 14 who died inside the camp were militants or civilians, according to the report.

Advancing under a blanket of artillery and tank fire, elite forces seized key positions of Fatah al-Islam militants and destroyed sniper nests on the northern and eastern edges of Nahr al-Bared while artillery batteries pounded the camp.

A Fatah al-Islam source confirmed the group had lost some positions and suffered two dead. Palestinian sources inside the camp said there was widescale destruction in civilian areas, according to the report.

The army has been battling militants in the camp -- many of them foreign fighters -- since May 20 in Lebanon's worst internal violence since the 1975-1990 civil war. At least 84 people -- 35 soldiers, 29 militants and 20 civilians -- had been killed before Friday.

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