Posted on 10/27/2003 2:06:19 PM PST by anotherview
Smoke rising from the area near Kfar Shouba, in southern Lebanon, after an Israeli air strike on Monday. (AP)
Last Update: 27/10/2003 23:20
Hezbollah fires shells at IDF positions on Lebanese border
By Uri Ash, Haaretz Correspondent, Haaretz Service and Reuters
The Lebanese army said on Monday it had agreed with Syria on ways to confront "enemy" threats, hours after Israel and Hezbollah guerrillas traded fire.
Earlier in the day, one Israel Defense Forces soldier was lightly wounded Monday when Hezbollah attacked IDF positions in the Har Dov border area near Lebanon.
Syrian and Iranian-backed Hezbollah fired rockets and artillery rounds at the two IDF positions in the Har Dov area named "Gladiola" and "Hadas," near the border between Lebanon and Israel, witnesses and security sources said. Hezbollah also fired an anti-tank missile at an IDF base outside of the Har Dov region, for the first time since April 2002.
Security sources in Jerusalem said the rocket fire hit at least one outpost and struck the outskirts of several others in the disputed border area that Israel calls Har Dov and Lebanon calls the Shebaa Farms region.
Witnesses and security sources said Israel responded with two air strikes on the edges of the Lebanese border village of Kfar Shouba and shelled the outskirts of several other villages.
Israeli helicopters were deployed at the scene and artillery batteries were returning fire at Hezbollah positions in southern Lebanon, Army Radio reported.
The Lebanese army said in a statement that it and Syria's armed forces had looked into ways to "confront challenges and enemy threats to which both Syria and Lebanon are exposed."
"A unified formula was reached on this issue," it said, giving no details on exactly how Lebanon and Syria would respond to such "threats."
Syrian Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Hasan Turkmani, who earlier this month put the Syrian armed forces on alert against any new Israeli attack, held meetings on Monday with Lebanese President Emile Lahoud and top military officials.
Syria, which has broad political and military sway over its smaller neighbor, hinted on Sunday it would retaliate over any Israeli military strike against it by attacking Jewish settlements on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
The first round of the Hezbollah attack lasted about half an hour and was followed by a half-hour reprieve. Hezbollah began firing again at about 4:30 P.M.
An IDF soldier was killed along the Israel-Lebanon border earlier this month.
Palestinians fire 3 mortar shells at Gaza settlement
Palestinians fired three mortar shells Monday evening at one of the settlements in the Gush Katif bloc in the Gaza Strip, the Itim news agency reported.
No injuries were reported, but the shells damaged one house in the settlement. IDF troops returned fire.
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