LEBANON: SEVEN LEBANESE KILLED IN A SERIES OF ATTACKS BY ISRAELI AND GUERRILLA FORCES IN SOUTH LEBANON

Record ID: 355784

  • Title: LEBANON: SEVEN LEBANESE KILLED IN A SERIES OF ATTACKS BY ISRAELI AND GUERRILLA FORCES IN SOUTH LEBANON
  • Date: 14th May 1999
  • Summary: HOULA VILLAGE, SOUTH LEBANON (MAY 13, 1999) (REUTERS) 1. SLV/SV OF A DAMAGED BUILDING/ PEOPLE STANDING OUTSIDE (2 SHOTS) 0.10 2. SV DEAD CIVILIAN ON GROUND IN HOUSE, WITH RELATIVES SCREAMING (2 SHOTS) 0.39 3. SV DAMAGE CAUSE TO VILLAGE, KATYUSHA ROCKET REMAINS ON GROUND 0.45 4. PAN MORE DAMAGED BUILDINGS 0.56 5. SV INTERIOR OF TH
  • Embargoed: 29th May 1999 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: HOULA VILLAGE AND AND JIZZINE, SOUTH LEBANON
  • Country: Lebanon
  • Reuters ID: LVA5XF981BGATKVUR9Q3ZFJKCY13
  • Story Text: Seven Lebanese, most of them civilians, have been
    killed in a series of attacks by Israeli and guerrilla forces
    in the bloodiest 24-hour period on the last active
    Arab-Israeli warfront since December.

    A roadside bomb in the Jezzine enclave destroyed a
    passing car on Thursday (May 13), killing an officer in the
    Israeli-run South Lebanon Army (SLA), a child and two women.

    A third woman was seriously wounded, a source in the
    Israeli-funded militia said.The civilian victims were all
    believed related to the officer.

    The Jezzine pocket is officially outside the Israeli
    occupation zone but is held by the SLA.After the bombing,
    Israeli warplanes staged a series of air raids on areas facing
    Jezzine.Guerrillas fired mortar rounds into the pocket, while
    Israeli and SLA artillery replied.

    The bombing came after Israeli jets had killed two men and
    wounded another, firing up to six rockets into an abandoned
    house north of the occupied zone.That followed overnight
    barrages on the occupied area by Hizbollah guerrillas in which
    one civilian was killed and four were wounded.

    Earlier a source in the SLA said a 33-year-old woman,
    Intisar Fouani, was killed and four civilians were wounded
    when mortar bombs or rockets struck the village of Houla in Israel's
    15-km (nine-mile) deep occupation zone.

    The upsurge in violence coincided with a visit to Damascus
    by Iranian President Mohammed Khatami, who has tried to
    moderate the militant image of Iran's Islamic government.

    Hizbollah is backed by both Syria and Iran but its strongest links to
    Tehran are with more hardline parts of that government.

    Hassan Nasrallah, head of Hizbollah (Party of God), was in
    Damascus for a meeting with Khatami on Friday, a spokesman for
    the group told Reuters.

    The fighting came four days before Israelis vote in an
    election where its occupation of southern Lebanon and the
    steady death toll its forces suffer, has been an issue.

    The deaths in south Lebanon were the highest in a 24-hour
    period since Israeli jets killed a Lebanese woman and her six
    children in December.

    The previous highest toll was exactly a year ago when
    Israeli jets attacked a Palestinian base well back from the
    front, killing 10 guerrillas and wounding 22.

    Only one civilian had been killed and 30 wounded in south
    Lebanon fighting this year before the latest violence.Under a
    1996 agreement, both sides were to avoid inflicting civilian
    casualties.

    The air attack near the village of Majdal Silm that killed
    two men was Israel's 53rd of the year.

    Witnesses said Irish troops of the U.N.force in the area
    retrieved the body of one man and the limbs of another from
    the debris.They were believed to be guerrillas of the
    Faithful Resistance, a small Lebanese Moslem group.

    In Beirut, the Iranian-backed Hizbollah movement
    claimed responsibility for assaults on Israeli and SLA
    positions in the western sector of the zone.

    Hizbollah leads a guerrilla campaign to end Israel's
    occupation of south Lebanon.Israel has occupied parts of the
    south since 1978 and set up the "security zone" in 1985,
    saying it was needed to prevent possible cross-border attacks.


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