ISRAEL - Planes bomb Lebanon

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Monday October 22 2:35 PM ET

Israeli Warplanes Strike Lebanon

HALTA, Lebanon (AP) - Israeli warplanes attacked suspected Hezbollah guerrilla positions in southern Lebanon on Monday after the guerrillas fired rockets and mortars shells at Israeli outposts in a disputed border area.

Witnesses said a jet fighter swooped twice over a hill in the Chebaa Farms area, firing air-to-surface missiles each time. Israeli artillery also shelled suspected guerrillas who earlier targeted Israeli positions with rockets and mortars.

Hezbollah said in a statement that its guerrillas opened fire with rockets and mortars ``after spotting movements by enemy soldiers,'' scoring direct hits. Lebanese witnesses said at least one rocket hit an Israeli position.

The Israelis responded by firing some 30 heavy artillery shells at a valley near the Lebanese village of Halta, close to the disputed Chebaa Farms area on Lebanon's border with the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

A statement from the Israeli military said Hezbollah fired anti-tank missiles and mortar shells at Israeli army posts in the Chebaa Farms area, and Israeli forces returned artillery fire and tank shells.

There was no immediate word of casualties on the Lebanese side. An Israeli army spokesman said there were no Israeli injuries.

The Israeli statement said air force planes attacked the sources of fire in the village of Kfar Chouba.

The last Israeli air raid was July 1, when Israeli fighter jets struck Syrian army positions in eastern Lebanon in retaliation for a Hezbollah attack at Chebaa Farms.

Hezbollah considers Chebaa Farms Lebanese territory and has vowed to liberate it, a position supported by the governments of both Lebanon and Syria, the main power broker in Lebanon.

But the United Nations, which drew a border line after Israel's May 2000 withdrawal from southern Lebanon, regards the area as part of Syrian territory that Israel occupied in the 1967 Mideast war.

Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, the Hezbollah leader, said later Monday in a speech that attacks would continue as long as Israel occupied the Chebaa Farms area.

-- Anonymous, October 22, 2001


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