Two relief workers from the Lebanese Red Cross were killed and a Palestinian mediator was wounded in fierce fighting on Monday between Lebanese troops and Islamic militants at a Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon, according to dpa. A Lebanese security source said the two local Red Cross workers were shot and killed when they tried to evacuate civilians caught in fighting between the army and Fatah al-Islam militants near the northern entrance of the Nahr al-Bared camp. A Palestinian cleric, Sheikh Mohammad al-Hajj, was also wounded when he came under fire after he entered the camp to hold talks with the militants on ways to end the 23-day-old conflict peacefully. The cleric was hit in the leg shortly after he held talks with Fatah al-Islam official Shahine Shahine. "I had constructive talks and I was about to leave the camp when I was hit by gunfire," al-Hajj said. A cloud of smoke hung overhead as scores of heavy artillery rounds crashed into the camp, while tank and heavy machine gun fire strafed suspected militant hideouts. The militants hit back with sporadic attacks of mortar bombs and rocket-propelled grenades. "Our workers were killed by shrapnel from a shell that fell next to their vehicle," said George Kettaneh, the head of emergency operations for the Lebanese Red Cross. Earlier, a Lebanese army source said the workers were hit by fire inside the camp. "The army does not shoot on this area," he said. Lebanese troops on Monday continued their battle against Islamist militia from the Fatah al-Islam group at the refugee camp, pounding areas in the camp's northern and eastern sector. Fighting has been raging in and around the settlement that houses around 40,000 Palestinian refugees - 35,000 of whom have fled since fighting began on May 20.
