Fierce battle ends in West Bank; 14 Palestinians die

NABLUS, West Bank -- Israeli troops fought fierce battles with Palestinians in the West Bank on Sunday, encountering stiff resistance in the crowded Jenin refugee camp and in the winding alleyways of Nablus' Old City.\nAt least 14 Palestinians were killed in Nablus, where dead bodies were sprawled along narrow, rubble-filled streets on the 10th day of Israel's offensive to weed out militants staging deadly terror attacks on its civilians.\nEarly Monday, helicopter gunships fired 18 or 19 missiles into a West Bank refugee camp on the western edge of the city of Jenin, witnesses said. The attack came after troops used loudspeakers to warn militants about the attack and urge them to surrender, witnesses said.\nThe renewed fighting came as Secretary of State Colin Powell, due in the region this week to try to resolve the crisis, said that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has "taken very much to heart" President Bush's call Saturday for an immediate withdrawal from Palestinian areas.\nBut Powell noted that the Israeli leader has yet to set a timetable for a pullback and Bush has not demanded one. "The president doesn't give orders to a sovereign prime minister of another country," Powell said on NBC's "Meet the Press."\nOn another front, there were exchanges of fire between Lebanese guerrillas and the Israeli military. Six Israeli soldiers were wounded.\nAt the beginning of the weekly Cabinet meeting Sunday, Sharon defended the offensive, calling it "a war for our homes"