[News] Israeli war planes bomb Lebanon

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Israeli war planes bomb Lebanon in strike at Hizbollah

http://news.independent.co.uk/low_res/story.jsp?story=483201&host=3&dir=75



By Justin Huggler in Jerusalem




21 January 2004

Israeli planes carried out air strikes over Lebanon yesterday evening, in 
the worst flare-up of violence across the border for months.

There were no initial reports of casualties in yesterday's aerial 
bombardments. Israel said they were a reply to Lebanese Hizbollah 
guerrillas firing an anti-tank missile at an Israeli bulldozer that had 
crossed the border into Lebanon on Monday, killing one Israeli soldier and 
wounding a second.

Yesterday's events come after Israeli air strikes on Syria in October last 
year, just 14 miles from Damascus, that threatened a dangerous widening of 
the Middle East conflict. Israel again threatened Syria, which has 
considerable power in Lebanon.

Israel "holds Syria directly responsible" for Hizbollah's actions, said 
Major Sharon Feingold, a spokeswoman for the Israeli army, and "will not 
tolerate the current situation" in which she claimed Hizbollah is 
attempting "to escalate the situation in the north".

The Israeli Foreign Minister, Silvan Shalom, said: "If President [Bashar] 
Assad thinks he's going to use Hizbollah as the long arm in the fight 
against us, he should know that our response will be very clear."

Israel claimed the targets of yesterday's air strikes were two Hizbollah 
bases used to store weapons and "stage attacks" on Israel.

In October last year, it had it claimed that the target in Syria was a 
training base used by Palestinians; it later emerged the base was empty and 
had been disused for many years.

Reports from Lebanon said the targets of yesterday's air raids appeared to 
be near Alman, a village in the Litani river area in south Lebanon, and 
near Zibqine, a village east of Tyre. Lebanese officials reportedly 
confirmed three air-to-surface missile strikes, and there were reports of 
explosions in the Bekaa Valley.

The Israeli army first tried to claim that the bulldozer had come under 
fire while still inside Israeli territory, and that it had never entered 
Lebanon. Hizbollah said its guerrillas fired on the bulldozer because it 
had crossed into Lebanese territory. But Brigadier General Yair Golan, 
commander of the Galilee division, admitted yesterday that Hizbollah's 
version of events was true, and that the bulldozer had crossed "one or two 
metres" into Lebanese territory.

The bulldozer was clearing explosives that the Israeli military had 
discovered planted alongside a military road on the Israeli side of the 
border. The army accused Hizbollah of planting the bombs.

Hizbollah fought against the Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon and 
declared victory when Israeli forces withdrew in 2000. But Hizbollah is 
continuing to resist what it says is Israel's continuing occupation of a 
small strip of Lebanese land at the Shebaa Farms. Israel claims the land is 
originally Syrian, not Lebanese, and refuses to end its occupation.

The Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, has come under criticism in 
Israel for his reluctance to hold peace talks with Syria. The flare-up of 
violence with Hizbollah, which is blamed on Syria, may have come at a 
convenient time for Mr Sharon.


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