Explosion rocks Beirut's Verdun district

Updated 21.42 Mon May 21 2007

Keywords: al-Qaeda, Palestinian Nahr al-Bared refugee camp, Lebanon

An explosion has rocked a car park in the mainly Sunni Muslim district of Verdun in Beirut, wounding at least seven people.

The explosion set cars ablaze and broke the windows of some buildings.

At least 27 soldiers, 15 militants and 15 civilians died in the battles, the worst internal fighting since Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil war

On Sunday, a woman was killed when an explosive device planted under a parked car detonated by a popular shopping mall in the mainly Christian east of the capital. At least 10 people were wounded by flying glass.

In the north of the country, Lebanese troops battled Islamist militants at a Palestinian refugee camp for the second day on Monday.

So far, 79 people have been killed in Lebanon's bloodiest internal fighting since its 1975-90 civil war

Hundreds of troops, backed by tanks and armoured carriers, surrounded the camp as black smoke billowed into the air. Militants responded at daybreak by firing back with mortars.

Under a 1969 agreement banning the Lebanese army from the country's 12 refugee centres, troops are holding back from entering the camp.