MIDDLE EAST

Guardian: Israeli fighter jets strike south Lebanon

Israeli fighter jets today attacked Hizbullah guerrilla targets in south Lebanon, Israeli military officials said.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, the officials said that Israeli warplanes hit Hizbullah bases in the Bekaa Valley, the area of south Lebanon that is closest to the Syrian border.

Israel's Channel Two TV said that at least four explosions were heard. There were two targets but no immediate reports of casualties, the report said. The air strike followed a border incident yesterday, in which Hizbullah guerrillas fired an anti-tank missile at a bulldozer clearing explosives. An Israeli soldier was killed and another seriously wounded.

The Israeli army today changed its account of the border incident to acknowledge that the soldier killed in the clash had actually been on Lebanese and not Israeli soil at the time.

"We deviated [from standard procedure] by going into Lebanon," Reuters reported Brigadier General Yair Golan as saying.

"From their [Hizbullah's] standpoint [the attack] is legitimate, although not from ours," Brig Gen Golan said. "It is very serious and an escalation ... it is a provocation by Hizbullah."

"Israel schickt Soldaten über die Grenze nach Libanon. Sie werden, was vorauszusehen war, attackiert. Israel nennt das eine Provokation und bombardiert im Gegenzug Hisbollah Stellungen im Libanon um nachher Syrien die Schuld für den Zwischenfall zu geben.?????"