Palestinian refugees killed in gun attack

Two people were killed and six others wounded today during infighting at Lebanon's largest refugee camp.

Security sources said Lebanese Muslim fundamentalists sprayed automatic gunfire and threw grenades at members of the Palestinian Fatah faction which effectively runs the Ain al-Hilweh camp south of Beirut which is home to 75,000 Palestinians.

Tension has been high at the camp since last month after Palestinian factions brokered the arrest of a Lebanese man accused of killing three security officers. Islamic groups in the camp, where the Lebanese army confines its presence to checkpoints outside entrances, have threatened to attack any group that hands other suspected militants over to Lebanese authorities.

The suspects are wanted in connection with an Islamic uprising in northern Lebanon in 2000 that the army was able to put down after 40 people were killed, following some of the bloodiest clashes since Lebanon's 1975-2000 civil war.