Beirut - A member of the Sunni Fundamentalist group Jund al-Sham, Abu Ramez al-Sahmarani, escaped an assassination attempt at Ain el-Hilweh refugee camp in south Lebanon Monday, security sources said.

The unknown assailants fired machine guns toward his house in Ain al-Hilweh, east of the southern port city of Sidon, early in the day, but did not hit him.

On Sunday, three Palestinian militants were killed in a clash with the mainstream Fatah guerrilla group in Ain al-Hilweh.

The three were members of Islamist factions Usbat al Ansar and Jund al-Sham.

Among the dead were Shadeh Johar, a ranking Jund al-Sham official and Abdul Nasser Dawali.

Clashes had broken out in the camp Saturday between Fatah and Jund al-Sham.

According to Palestinian sources Jund Al Sham is a shadowy amorphous Islamic militant organization.

It is unclear if it has links to Syrian intelligence or to Abu Musab al Zarqawi's al Qaeda in Iraq, or both. The name means "Soldiers of Mesopotamia" and refers to the ancient Islamic term of Bilad al-Sham, a region which covers Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian territories.

The leaders of the group are Ahmad Saady and Abu Yousef Sharkiya, both in their mid fifties and originally from Nahr al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp in North Lebanon.

A relative of Ahmad Saady - Abdel Karim Saady - was one of Abu Musab al Zarqawi's lieutenants in Iraq, the sources said. (dpa)