NAHR AL-BARED, Lebanon, Aug 23 (Reuters) - Two Lebanese soldiers were killed in fighting with Islamist militants who have been battling the army in north Lebanon for more than three months, a security source said on Thursday. The soldiers died of wounds sustained on Wednesday at the Nahr al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp where the army is trying to crush the al Qaeda-inspired Fatah al-Islam group. The army has now lost 143 soldiers in the fighting, Lebanon's worst internal violence since the 1975-1990 civil war. At least 100 militants and 42 civilians have also been killed since the violence erupted on May 20. Fatah al-Islam had asked mediators earlier this week to seek a ceasefire to allow the evacuation of family members holed up with them inside the largely destroyed camp. The army agreed to the request on Tuesday. But the Palestinian Clerics' Association, which is acting as an intermediary, said communication problems had complicated efforts to organise the evacuation. The association's Sheikh Mohammed al-Haj said he had been unable to reach the militants since Tuesday on the telephone line he had previously used to talk to their spokesman. "Everything depends on a phone call so we can organise the operation," he said. The number of women and children holed up with the militants is estimated at 75, he said. Most of the camp's 40,000 residents fled to a nearby Palestinian refugee camp in the early days of the battle. The fighting, which has reduced much of the camp to rubble, continued on Thursday. Helicopters bombed militant positions at least four times, witnesses said. The army demands the unconditional surrender of the militants, who it says triggered the conflict by attacking military posts. Fatah al-Islam split from a Syrian-backed Palestinian faction last year. It says it shares al Qaeda's ideology but has no organisational ties to Osama bin Laden's network. The prosecutor-general this week charged 107 detainees with membership of the group. Most were Lebanese and Palestinians but they also included Saudis, Syrians, a Tunisian and an Algerian. Another 119 are wanted on the same charges, including 38 Saudis and 11 Syrians.
