Lebanese troops pounded Al-Qaida-inspired militants dug in at a Palestinian refugee camp in north Lebanon on Friday after the gunmen refused demands they give themselves up.

Artillery and tanks blasted several areas of the squalid Nahr al-Bared camp, where Fatah al-Islam militants have shown stiff resistance in nearly three weeks of often ferocious battles.

"A shell hit a house where 10 civilians were sheltering," camp resident Wissam Badran told Reuters by telephone. "I took out four people -- a man, a woman and two children --from under the rubble whom I think are dead. Six people were wounded."

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It was not immediately possible to confirm the report but reliable news of casualties from inside the camp has been difficult to acquire.

Heavy machinegun fire echoed across the area as fires raged inside and clouds of smoke billowed over the camp, abandoned by most of its 40,000 residents.

The fierce fighting resumed after two days of mostly sporadic clashes and came hours after Lebanese Islamists failed in a bid to convince Fatah al-Islam militants to surrender.

But Lebanese sources said the Islamic Action Front, which includes Sunni politicians and clerics, would continue its efforts to find a solution to the standoff.

The fighting erupted on May 20 when the militants attacked army units deployed around Nahr al-Bared after one of their hideouts in a nearby city was stormed. At least 115 people, including 47 soldiers and 38 militants, have been killed.

Explosion rocks Christian town north of Beirut, killing one
A bomb went off near a Christian town north of Beirut on Thursday, killing at least one man and wounding three others, in the latest
string of explosions that have shaken Lebanon since fighting erupted between army troops and Islamic militants in a northern refugee camp three weeks ago.

Security officials, speaking on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to talk to the media, said the blast occurred in an industrial area in the town of Zouk Mousbeh, about 20 kilometers from Beirut and near the town of Jounieh in the Christian heartland.

The explosion set off large fires in several buildings and black smoke was seen billowing from the area. Ambulances and fire engines raced to the scene, where mangled remains of cars lay overturned in the street.

Civil defense personnel pulled out the body of Pierre Dehni, whose nationality was not immediately known, from the wreckage of a gutted building. Two Syrian workers and a Lebanese man were also wounded in the blast, the officials said.

Al-Jazeera satellite television said a car bomb had caused the explosion but Lebanese officials could not immediately confirmed this. Firefighters said they expected to take hours to extinguish the blazes.

Lebanese Broadcasting Corp. television reported that the area targeted in the explosion consisted of about 300 industrial stores and shops that sell paint and inflammable materials. Stored gas and oxygen containers swiftly caught fire in the blast.

The blast was the second in four days. On Monday, 10 people were injured when a bomb exploded in an empty passenger bus parked in the Christian neighborhood of Bouchrieh east of Beirut.

With Thursday's blast, explosions in Beirut and nearby areas have killed two people and wounded over 40, since clashes started between Lebanese army troops and Islamic militants in the Nahr el-Bared Palestinian refugee camp close to the northern port city of Tripoli.

Anti-Syrian Telecommunications Minister Marwan Hamadeh, himself a survivor of a 2004 car bomb, claimed there was a direct link to the Nahr el-Bared clashes and blamed Syria for Thursday's blast. "We are witnessing terrorist attacks on the people, government and army of Lebanon," he said.

"The Syrian regime has promised to turn Lebanon into hell," anti-Syrian Christian lawmaker Elias Atallah said.

Earlier Thursday, one Lebanese soldier was killed and three were wounded in clashes in Nahr el-Bared, while a military raid on a suspected militant hideout in the country's east uncovered three vehicles rigged with explosives.

The fighting in the northern camp, as well as this week's clashes at the Ein el-Hilweh camp near the southern city of Sidon and the latest bombings, have raised fears that Lebanon is heading for more violence.

The security officials said the army's fatality Thursday was gunned down by Fatah Islam snipers. Earlier in the day, the al-Qaida-inspired militants attacked an armored personnel carrier, wounding three soldiers, two of them seriously.

The army retaliated with artillery, tanks and heavy machine gunfire at suspected Fatah al-Islam positions inside the camp. The three explosives-rigged vehicles, two cars and a van, were discovered near the town of Bar Elias in eastern Lebanon's Bekaa Valley, hidden in a garage, along with several rockets, the officials said.

Witnesses saw at least one blindfolded suspect taken away by the troops.

The raid came a day after three foreign militants - two Syrians and an Iraqi - were captured nearby. A statement from the State Security Department on Thursday said suspects had confessed to being members of al-Qaida and that they planned to use car bombs in their attacks, according to the state-run National News Agency. There were no further details.

The United States and Arab allies have been rushing military supplies to Lebanese army to help strengthen it ahead of a possible full-out assault on the militants barricaded in Nahr el-Bared.

The U.S. airlift, however, has drawn criticism from Hezbollah, the U.S.-backed government's top domestic opponent, whose leader warned Lebanon was being dragged into a U.S. war against al-Qaida that would destabilize the country.

U.S. Defense Department spokesman Bryan Whitman said Thursday that the United States had completed 21 airlift missions to provide ammunition to Lebanon, and that the airport team that unloaded the planes landing in Beirut had left.

Also Thursday, judicial authorities charged three Fatah Islam suspects with membership in a terrorist organization. Thirty Fatah Islam suspects are currently in custody.

Lebanon is home to 400,000 Palestinians, most of whom oppose groups such as Fatah Islam. However, impoverished and densely packed Palestinian camps have become fertile ground for groups such as Fatah al-Islam.

The Palestinian Liberation Organization's representative in Lebanon, Abbas Zaki, said Thursday that Lebanon's Palestinians should be allowed to set up their own security force inside the camps to prevent formation of armed gangs in the future.

Speaking after talks with Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank town of Ramallah, Zaki said the PLO proposes a force of 4,000 to 5,000 members for the Lebanon camps.