Fighting resumed Thursday at the Nahr al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon between militants of
Fatah al Islam and the Lebanese army, the Lebanese army confirmed.

"We do not know if the zero hour for the operation has started," the sources said in apparent reference to an expected army assault.

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Earlier in the day, Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora vowed in an address to the nation that his government would uproot Islamic militants battling the army in a Palestinian refugee camp.

"We will work to root out and strike at terrorism, but we will embrace and protect our brothers in the camps," Siniora said in a televised speech, insisting Lebanon has no quarrel with the 400,000 Palestinian refugees who
live in the country.

His address came a day after the Lebanese defense minister issued an ultimatum to the Fatah al-Islam militants barricaded in the Nahr el-Bared refugee camp - many of whom are believed to be Arabs from other countries - to surrender or face a military assault.

Siniora said the Fatah al-Islam militant group holed up in the camp was a terrorist organization that claims to be Islamic and to defend Palestine and was attempting to ride on the suffering and the struggle of the Palestinian
people.

The fighting, which broke out Sunday, has killed some 50 combatants and many civilians.

A truce went into effect Tuesday afternoon to allow thousands of civilians to escape the battles. Sporadic gunfire could be heard again on Thursday.

There have been complaints that the army's artillery attacks have inflicted heavy damage on the buildings in the camp, causing civilian casualties.

Although Palestinian factions have dissociated themselves from Fatah al-Islam, refugees in other camps across Lebanon were seething with anger over the bombardment, raising concern that violence could spread.

"You are our brothers," Siniora told Palestinian refugees in his TV address. "We share with you the bad times before the good ones."

There have been eyewitness accounts of Palestinian men being briefly detained for questioning about conditions inside the camp and for information about Fatah al-Islam.

Human Rights Watch has expressed concern about the conduct of warfare, stressing on the need to protect civilians in times of fighting.

"Legitimate security concerns cannot justify arbitrary arrests of any Palestinian," Nadim Houry of the human rights group told the Associated Press.

"There has to be an approach taking into account that the Palestinians in the camp are not the enemy," he said.

Meanwhile, Lebanese Defense Minister Elias Murr was criticized by one of the major newspapers for comments he made that the army will not rest until it makes the
militants pay heavily.

"We have 27 martyrs from the army and there should be 270 killed or captured from the other side in order for the battle to be equal," Murr said in an interview with al-Arabiya on Wednesday.

This is vengeful logic, not a logic of the state, said the influential As-Safir newspaper on its front page Thursday.

Lebanese military official says army sank boats of fleeing militants
A Senior Lebanese military official disclosed Thursday
that troops on Tuesday sank two small boats carrying Islamic militants who were trying to flee a besieged Palestinian refugee camp via the Mediterranean sea.

The official said all militants on the boats were killed, but did not specify how many died in the incident.

He spoke under customary conditions of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.

They were trying to flee from the coast next to the Nahr el-Bared camp, the official said.

They took advantage of a lull in the fighting Tuesday and tried to escape, he said. There were no survivors.

The official said soldiers with heavy machine guns blasted the two rubber dinghies on which the militants were attempting to escape.