Lebanese troops stormed a Sunni Islamist militant hideout in the northern city of Tripoli on Sunday, killing seven of them, including a woman, while battles raged on at a nearby Palestinian refugee camp.
Security sources said one soldier was killed and 14 were wounded before a 10-hour siege of an apartment block reached a bloody climax. Militants killed a policeman, his 4-year-old daughter and a relative who all lived in the building.
The stand-off, which began shortly before midnight, was linked to 36-day-old battles between the army and Fatah al-Islam militants at the Nahr al-Bared camp just north of Tripoli.
Two floors of the five-storey building were blackened and burned in the fighting. Holes from shells, grenades and bullets punctured its facade. A pool of blood lay on the pavement. The violence in the north has complicated a political crisis that pits Lebanon's Western-backed government against opponents led by the pro-Syrian Shia Hezbollah and Amal factions.
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