A car used by militants in an attack on the Lebanese army burns in a street near the port city of Tripoli May 20, 2007. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo) Photo Gallery>>>

    BEIJING, May 21 -- In Lebanon, fighting continues in the north of the country between local security forces and Islamic militants. That's already killed close to forty people.

    At least thirteen soldiers and seventeen militants have been killed in clashes that continue unabated on the streets of Tripoli and in a nearby Palestinian refugee camp.

    The battle first erupted early on Sunday after police raided a militant-occupied apartment in Tripoli, in a search for suspects in a bank robbery carried out a day earlier.

    Gun-battles followed when militants resisted arrest with the conflict spreading to surrounding streets and the nearby Palestinian refugee camp.

    Lebanese tanks began shelling the headquarters of the militant group within the camp.

    Residents in Nahr el-Bared Palestinian refugee camp say at least 12 civilians have been killed or wounded.

    A senior security official says attacks have also killed a high-ranking member of the Fatah Islam militant group.

    The group is considered by some Lebanese officials to be a radical Sunni Muslim group with ties to al-Qaida, or at least al-Qaida doctrine and fighting methods.

    A Hamas representative in Lebanon has condemned the attacks carried out by the group.

    Osama Hamdan, Hamas representative in Lebanon, said, "What happened was a clear aggression practiced on the Lebanese Army. And the solution to this problem is to put an end to it."

    Meanwhile, Palestinian factions - including Fatah - in refugee camps have been on high alert since the start of the gun battles. The army has tightened security measures in about a dozen other such camps and is searching all cars entering and leaving the areas.