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Israeli troops hezbollah fighting in southern lebanon Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2004-07-20-lebanon_x.htmhttp://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2004-07-20-lebanon_x.htm
Two Israeli troops, Hezbollah guerrilla killed in fighting
BEIRUT (AP) — Israeli helicopters and tanks attacked Hezbollah positions in southern Lebanon Tuesday and fighter jets shook the Lebanese capital with sonic booms. The upsurge of hostilities killed two Israeli soldiers and a Lebanese guerrilla along the border.
Loud booms resounded over Beirut and a Palestinian guerrilla base south of the capital Tuesday as Israeli warplanes streaked across Lebanese airspace.
Earlier, a guerrilla official said the jets fired at least four missiles at the hilltop base of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, but he later said there was no airstrike. He apparently confused the low overflights and sonic booms with missile fire.
Israeli military officials confirmed its air force planes flew over Lebanon but denied firing at any targets.
The crackle of ground anti-aircraft fire apparently directed at the jets echoed across Beirut, a city packed with summer tourists. Motorists sped on the streets in panic after the deafening explosions.
The flights over Beirut came hours after an escalation along the Lebanese-Israeli border.
Israel and Hezbollah traded blame over who precipitated the most serious fighting in months. Lebanon's government complained to the U.N. Security Council about the Israeli border attacks, which came a day after a Hezbollah commander was killed in a bombing in Beirut that the guerrillas blamed on Israel.
The Israeli army said two soldiers died in Tuesday's fighting and that helicopter gunships attacked Hezbollah positions. Hezbollah confirmed one of its guerrillas was killed.
Unlike most of the previous clashes, Tuesday's incidents were far from the disputed Chebaa Farms that witness frequent exchanges between Israel and Hezbollah. The last major trouble in Chebaa on May 7 killed an Israeli soldier.
Witnesses in southern Lebanon said two Israeli helicopters fired two rockets at the guerrilla positions near the border village of Aita Shaab, some nine miles southeast of the coastal city of Tyre. Later in the day, an Israeli helicopter staged a raid in the same area, security officials said.
The Lebanese security officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said an Israeli tank opened fire on a Hezbollah position near Aita el-Shaab, killing one guerrilla.
The guerrillas returned fire at Israeli positions across the border. Israeli helicopter gunships later took flight, firing missiles at the source of fire, the officials said.
A Hezbollah statement said the dead guerrilla was killed by Israeli tank shell that targeted a Hezbollah observation post at Hadab Aita near Aita el-Shaab.
The Israeli fire started a bush blaze and civil defense members as well as villagers worked to extinguish the flames, witnesses said.
Israeli helicopters later attacked another observation post at nearby Ramia, but there were no casualties or damage, the Hezbollah statement said.
The clashes later died down.
Hezbollah, the militant Shiite Muslim group which is backed by Iran and Syria, vowed in a statement that it would "chose the time and place for a deterrent response to make the enemy understand that aggression against the security and blood of our people would be very costly."
"The Zionist enemy is fully responsible for what happened and what is happening in Lebanon," Sheik Hassan Ezzeddine, Hezbollah's media chief, told The Associated Press.
"It (Israel) is the side that moved the battle out of its natural frame in Chebaa Farms," he said.
In Israel, Maj. Jacob Dallal of the military spokesman's office said Hezbollah shot first at an Israeli border post and Israeli military action was in response to the "provocation."
Lebanon complained to the U.N. Security Council, saying Israel violated Lebanese airspace, killed a Lebanese guerrilla fighter and caused material damage, a Foreign Ministry official said on condition of anonymity.
Including Tuesday's deaths, 13 Israeli soldiers have been killed in cross-border confrontations since Israeli pulled out from southern Lebanon in 2000, ending an 18-year occupation. In addition, one Israeli civilian was killed by fire from Lebanon in October.
Since the Israeli pullout, occasional exchanges of fire across the border have persisted.
Israel and the State Department consider Hezbollah a terrorist organization. However, the militant group is widely regarded as a liberation movement in the rest of the Middle East.
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Copyright 2004 The Associated Press.
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