TEL AVIV Ñ Hizbullah has launched a heavy barrage against Israeli
military positions along the Lebanese border.
The Iranian-backed movement fired scores of mortars, Katyusha rockets
and anti-tank missiles against Israeli positions in the Shebaa plateau on
Wednesday. The plateau, captured during the 1967 war with Syria, has now
been claimed by Lebanon.
Some of the shells landed near Israeli communities. Nobody was injured.
"Maintaining silence over the [Israeli] occupation merely increases
tension in the area," Mohammed Ra'ad, Hizbullah's representative in the
Lebanese parliament, said.
Israeli air force jets responded by striking suspected Hizbullah targets
in southern Lebanon. Israeli artillery also pounded the area.
The fighting along the Israeli-Lebanese border was the heaviest since
Oct. 22. Israeli officials said Iran had ordered the latest Hizbullah
attack.
Lebanese sources said the Hizbullah strike was prompted by an Israeli
reconnaissance flight over the Israeli-Lebanese border. Hizbullah fired
anti-aircraft missiles at an Israeli unmanned air vehicle. The UAV was not
struck.
Israeli officials said Hizbullah has about 8,000 Katyusha and
short-range rockets in southern Lebanon. They said about 300 of these
rockets have a range of at least 70 kilometers and can reach the Israeli
city of
Hadera.
In an unrelated development, a leading Christian military commander was
assassinated on Thursday in Beirut. Lebanese security sources said a car
bomb killed former minister Eli Hobeika and four bodyguards. Hobeika was
regarded as the Christian commander who carried out the 1982 operation in
the Palestinian refugee camps of Sabra and Shatilla, in which about 400
people were killed.
