Militants' threat to spread fight
Militants have threatened to take their fight across Lebanon and beyond if the Lebanese army continues to attack a refugee camp.
Fatah al-Islam military commander Shahin Shahin said: "If the army continues to bomb civilians and pursue its inhumane practices... we will move within the next two days to the second phase of the battle."
"We will show them the capabilities of Fatah al-Islam, starting with Lebanon and then moving to the whole of Greater Syria," he said, using a term intended to include what is now Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian territories.
Lebanese troops fired artillery and tank shells overnight and in the morning at Fatah al-Islam militants holed up in the coastal Nahr al-Bared camp, the 18th day of battles there.
At least 114 people, including 46 soldiers and 38 militants, have been killed since fighting erupted on May 20. The army says the militants started the conflict and demands their surrender.
The battles are Lebanon's deadliest internal conflict since the 1975-1990 civil war.
About 27,000 of Nahr al-Bared's 40,000 refugees have fled, many of them to the nearby Beddawi camp.
UNRWA, the UN agency that cares for Palestinian refugees, has launched an appeal for £6.35 million to meet the urgent needs of the displaced.
© Independent Television News Limited 2007. All rights reserved.
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