Israeli forces strike Hizbollah at Lebanon border
Reuters
Date: 06-30-05
KFAR SHOUBA, Lebanon (Reuters) - Israeli helicopters struck at Hizbollah guerrillas near a disputed zone on the Lebanese border on Thursday, a day after an attack killed an Israeli officer in the worst violence there for six months.
Witnesses said Israeli aircraft fired missiles at Hizbollah positions and later raked hillsides with machine-gun fire inside south Lebanon. There was no report of casualties and the Shi'ite group said it had not responded.
Israeli military sources said helicopter gunners had twice shot at guerrillas within the flashpoint Shebaa Farms -- an Israeli-controlled area that the United Nations calls occupied Syria, but which Lebanon and Syria say is still-occupied Lebanese soil.
The aerial attacks were part of an Israeli search for Hizbollah gunmen from a battle on Wednesday suspected to have infiltrated into Israeli territory, the Israeli sources said.
Earlier, the army said soldiers had shot and possibly killed at least one fighter during a gunbattle. A Hizbollah spokesman in Beirut said the group's forces did not respond to that Israeli fire either.
Violence erupted on Wednesday when Hizbollah attacked an Israeli outpost with gunfire and mortars, killing an Israeli office in the worst border fighting in six months.
Military sources said the body of a guerrilla had been found in brush after the fighting.
Hizbollah was instrumental in ending Israel's 22-year occupation of southern Lebanon in 2000. The two foes have clashed sporadically in the Shebaa Farms area since then.
The U.N. envoy for southern Lebanon Geir Pedersen condemned the clashes and urged both sides to respect the Blue Line, drawn by the world body to mark Israel's withdrawal from Lebanon.
"(Pedersen) calls upon the government of Lebanon to extend its control over all of its territory, exert its monopoly over the use of force and put an end to all attacks emanating from its territory," a United Nations statement said. "He calls upon the Israeli authorities to refrain from its air violations."
A U.N. resolution called last year for Syria to withdraw from Lebanon and Hizbollah, which controls the border area, to disarm. Syrian troops pulled out in April under Lebanese and international pressure but the guerrilla group vowed not to lay down its weapons.
Israeli military officials said they believed Hizbollah, which is backed by Syria and Iran, carried out the attack on Wednesday to flex its muscles after Lebanese elections returned an anti-Syrian majority to parliament for the first time since the 1975-1990 civil war.
Residents of southern Lebanon said Israeli warplanes dropped leaflets overnight addressed to the Lebanese people and government.
"Hizbollah, known for serving foreign interests, has again carried out terrorist acts inside Israel to trigger a response that will serve its terrorist existence," they read.
"Such irresponsible acts could bring destruction and take Lebanon back to the years of horror."
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