ISRAEL/LEBANON: ISRAELI PLANES HAVE STRUCK A SYRIAN ANTI-AIRCRAFT POST IN LEBANON AND HIZBOLLAH GUERRILLAS HAVE FIRED MORTAR BOMBS AT ISRAELI POSITIONS

Record ID: 276728

  • Title: ISRAEL/LEBANON: ISRAELI PLANES HAVE STRUCK A SYRIAN ANTI-AIRCRAFT POST IN LEBANON AND HIZBOLLAH GUERRILLAS HAVE FIRED MORTAR BOMBS AT ISRAELI POSITIONS
  • Date: 1st July 2001
  • Summary: (U4) ISRAELI-LEBANESE BORDER, ISRAEL (JULY 1, 2001) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. GV ISRAELI ARTILLERY FIRING/SMOKE RISING FROM THE SHEBAA FARMS AREA WHERE AN EXCHANGE OF FIRE TOOK PLACE (2 SHOTS) 0.10 2. SV OLD BUNKER 0.16 3. SLV/LV VARIOUS OF ISRAELI SOLDIERS AND MILITARY VEHICLES (4 SHOTS) 0.44 4. MCU SOLDIER LOOKING THROUGH BINOCUL
  • Embargoed: 16th July 2001 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: JERUSALEM / ISRAELI-LEBANESE BORDER, ISRAEL / BEKAA VALLEY, LEBANON / GOLAN HEIGHTS NEAR THE SYRIAN BORDER
  • City:
  • Country: Israel
  • Reuters ID: LVA82PSXNGCD460DMY9FT6X4D0OJ
  • Story Text: Israeli planes have struck a Syrian anti-aircraft post
    in Lebanon and Hizbollah guerrillas have fired mortar bombs at
    Israeli positions in tit-for-tat attacks threatening to open
    new fronts in Middle East conflict.



    At least two Syrian soldiers and one Lebanese were
    reported wounded in Sunday's (July 1) air raid on the
    strategic Bekaa Valley, where Syria has a large concentration
    of the more than 20,000 troops it keeps in Lebanon.

    Israeli Defence Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said the
    assault was in retaliation for a Hizbollah rocket attack on
    Friday (June 29) which Ben-Eliezer blamed on Syria, the main
    powerbroker in Lebanon.

    But he played down prospects of war with Syria after the
    air strike saying that the threat of wider conflict was
    minimal.

    "Thank God we are surrounded by countries that if they
    have anything in common, it is not to lead the Middle East
    into war," he said. "I am sure it is not in Syria's interests
    to do that."
    The Syrian-backed Hizbollah movement responded by firing
    at Israeli positions on the Lebanon border, in the disputed
    Shebaa Farms area. Israeli artillery in turn shelled the
    Lebanese border town of Kfar Shouba, wounding at least one
    person.

    The cycle of violence began on Friday when Hizbollah
    guerrillas fired anti-tank missiles at two Israeli frontier
    posts, wounding a soldier. Israel said Syria, the main
    powerbroker in Lebanon, gave Hizbollah the green light to
    attack.

    Hizbollah, Lebanon and Syria view the Shebaa Farms region,
    located at the junction of the Lebanese border and the Israeli
    occupied Golan Heights, as Lebanese territory and say Israel's
    presence there means that its May 2000 troop withdrawal from
    south Lebanon remains incomplete.

    It was the most serious Israeli strike on Syrian forces in
    Lebanon since April, when Israel killed at least three Syrian
    soldiers in a strike on another radar position after a
    Hizbollah attack in Shebaa that killed one Israeli soldier.

    Hizbollah, the main force in driving Israel from south
    Lebanon in May last year after a 22-year occupation, called
    its counterstrike a defence of national dignity, and its head
    Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah said Israel was storing-up trouble for
    itself.

    "The Israelis are leaping into danger and playing with
    fire," he told a rally near the area where the Syrian position
    was hit. "It will do them no good."
    Hizbollah has previously fired rockets at northern Israeli
    towns in response to Israeli attacks in Lebanon, but since
    Israel's pullout from southern Lebanon it has confined itself
    to attacking Israeli troops in Shebaa Farms.



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