EITA AL SHAAB (Lebanon), July 20: Lebanon's Hezbollah guerillas killed two Israeli soldiers and lost one of their own fighters in border clashes on Tuesday, a day after the group accused Israel of killing a top Hezbollah member.
Witnesses said Israeli helicopter gunships and tanks fired on at least two Hezbollah positions. Artillery fire boomed as the helicopters hovered overhead. In the early evening, two Israeli warplanes flew over Beirut, breaking the sound barrier and drawing anti-aircraft fire from Lebanese and Syrian army posts, security sources said. The sonic boom shattered windows in some parts of the capital.
An Israeli military source said the overflight was "a message to the government of Lebanon" to better control the southern border area. The Israeli army said two of its soldiers were killed by Hezbollah fire while repairing equipment on the roof of their post near the southern border. Hezbollah said one of its guerrillas died but gave no details.
The Lebanese government filed an official complaint about Israeli actions to the United Nations Security Council, sources in Beirut's foreign ministry said. The fighting was the most serious since May, when Hezbollah killed an Israeli soldier and wounded five others in a disputed area elsewhere on the border.
CONFLICTING ACCOUNTS: On Monday, a bomb in Beirut killed a senior Hezbollah member, Ghalib Awali. Hezbollah accused Israel, which assassinated Hezbollah leader Abbas al-Mussawi in 1992, of carrying out the attack.
There were conflicting accounts of Tuesday's clash in the south. Iranian and Syrian-backed Hezbollah said it began when Israeli forces shelled its positions by the town of Eita al Shaab.
Israel said Hezbollah had started the fighting and that the Israeli army would continue to operate against any party "involved in terrorism against Israeli citizens".
"This was a premeditated sniper attack on one of the outposts," Israeli army spokesman Captain Jacob Dallal told Reuters. "We responded with fire toward the Hezbollah position."
Hezbollah played a key role in forcing Israel to end its 22-year occupation of southern Lebanon in May 2000. Hezbollah guerrillas took up positions on the border after the Israeli withdrawal and fighting has flared sporadically since then.
Hezbollah killed an Israeli soldier and wounded five others in May in fighting in the Shebaa Farms, an area which Lebanon and Syria say is Lebanese territory. The United Nations says it is Israeli-occupied Syrian land.
Tuesday's hostilities occurred well away from that area, closer to the Mediterranean coast. -Reuters
US CALLS FOR RESTRAINT
WASHINGTON: The United States on Tuesday called for restraint along the Israel-Lebanon border. "As far as the situation on the border, we think the parties should exercise maximum restraint," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher told reporters. -AFP
