NAHR AL-BARED, Lebanon, Aug 30, 2007 (AFP) - Two Lebanese soldiers were killed Thursday in battles with Islamists at a refugee camp as the army launched air strikes to rout the militants from the last area they control.

An army spokesman told AFP that the death of the soldiers at Nahr al-Bared camp in northern Lebanon brought to 152 the number of troops killed since the standoff with Fatah al-Islam fighters began on May 20.

Beginning at dawn Thursday the army resumed its air strikes on the camp, dropping 250- and 400-kilogram bombs, an AFP correspondant witnessed.

Soldiers meanwhile proceeded with demining operations inside the bombed-out camp, focusing on subterranean shelters now under army control as well as other positions previously held by the Al-Qaeda-inspired militants.

The fighters, thought to number about 60, have been trying to negotiate all week to have some of their wounded evacuated, but the army has steadfastly refused calling for the unconditional surrender of everyone.

"War is war and they can't ask us to stop the fighting to evacuate their injured," a high-ranking military official who requested anonymity told AFP. "It's total surrender or nothing."

He said of the militants still inside the camp, some 30 to 35 are believed injured, nine of them seriously. An additional 20 men are fugitives sought for various crimes and not necessarily related to Fatah al-Islam, the official said.

He said one reason the army was having such a hard time in ending the three-month standoff was that it was poorly equipped and was dealing with a well-prepared and well-armed enemy willing to fight to the death.

"We need new weapons such as guided missiles, precision weapons and helicopters that can shoot missiles," he said. "We also need weapons that can be fired from the coast."

Nahr al-Bared is located along the Mediterranean. The vast majority of the camp's 31,000 residents fled at the start of the fighting.

The Lebanese army has been stretched thin since its deployment to the border with Israel last year for the first time in nearly four decades after the devastating summer war between the Jewish state and guerrillas of Lebanon's Shiite movement Hezbollah.

The United States has said that its aid to the army this year would exceed 270 million dollars, or five times more than last year.

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