BEIRUT, May 20 (Xinhua) -- A deadly fighting erupted between the Lebanese army and Fatah al-Islam militants in northern Lebanese port city of Tripoli on Sunday, killing 11 Lebanese soldiers and at least three militants, Arabia TV reported.

    The fighting broke out after a gunbattle raged in a Tripoli neighborhood and the nearby Palestinian refugee camp of Nahr al-Bared.

    Lebanese soldiers raided a militant-occupied apartment in Tripoli, where fierce gunbattle had killed 11 soldiers and at least three militants from the radical Palestinian faction of Fatah al-Islam by noon, Arabia TV reported, adding that another 12militants were arrested.

    Scores of troops armed with automatic rifles and rocket launchers had taken positions on the streets of Tripoli, which had already been cleared, as shown by the TV footage.

    It was the worst fighting in Lebanon's second-largest city in more than two decades, security officials said.

    Shortly after the outbreak of the fight, Premier Fouad Seniora described the assault on the army as a crime against national stability.

    Lebanese police had arrested a number of Fatah al-Islam members in connection with the twin bus bombings in the town of Ein Alaqon Feb. 13, which killed and wounded at least 20 people.