From: UPI
Subject: Israel hits Hezbollah base
Reply-To: ayman@umich.edu
Organization: United Press International
Date: Thu, 12 Nov 1992 21:27:22 GMT
X-Note: This article was automatically cross-posted to soc.culture.lebanon

[ Article cross-posted without permission ]

	TYRE, Lebanon (UPI) -- An Israeli force advanced outside its border
zone in southern Lebanon Thursday and clashed with guerrillas of the
pro-Iranian Hezbollah, Lebanese military and militia sources said.
	The force, backed by 12 vehicles, crossed Israel's self-declared 
``security zone'' and reached the area of Wadi Al Ouyoun overlooking the
villages of Kafra and Yater, east of this port city, the military
sources said.
	A Hezbollah information spokesman confirmed the attack and said the
Israeli force advanced toward the axis of Kafra-Srobbine area at 4:35 p.
m. Beirut time.
	Israeli gunships and heavy artillery covered the advancing force by
shelling the villages of Yater, Kafra and Srobbine, the spokesman said.
	``Our guerrillas foiled the Israeli infiltration attempt,'' the
spokesman told United Press International.
	At 7:15 p.m., six Israeli tanks reached the outskirts of Kafra, Yater
and Srobbine while airborne troops combed the area, according to
Lebanese military sources.
	In Jerusalem, an Israeli Army spokeswoman refused to comment on troop
movements but Israel radio quoted United Nations observers as saying
that Israeli troops went into Kafra and Yater.
	Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin told reporters in Tel Aviv that
his country ``would not hesitate to use its strength to protect our
citizens.'' Rabin refused to answer questions about whether Israeli
troops were moving past the security zone.
	The Israeli incursion came after Muslim guerrillas ambushed an
Israeli patrol, made up of two vehicles, in Rashaf Hill in the eastern
sector of the security zone.
	Military sources said guerrillas of the Muslim Resistance Movement,
the military arm of Hezbollah, fired machineguns and rocket-propelled
grenades, wounding four Israeli soldiers and destroying the two
vehicles.
	Radio Israel said one Hezbollah fighter was killed and another was
captured during the attack.
	Shortly afterward, three Israeli gunships combed with heavy
machineguns Hezbollah positions and bases near Yater and Kafra, the
source said, adding that the guerrillas confronted the raiding
helicopters.
	In retaliation, more than 20 shells crashed on the main road linking
Kafra to Yater.
	The Israeli shelling expanded to include the nearby villages of
Zawtar Al Sharkiyeh and Zawtar Al Gharbiyeh, the sources said, adding
that Hezbollah declared a state of full alert among its ranks.
	Earlier, Lebanese Defence Minister Mohsen Dalloul said it was
impossible to halt resistance activities as long as Israel maintains its
occupation of southern Lebanon.
	The attacks came after one Nepalese U.N. peacekeeping soldier and one
Hezbollah fighter were killed as Hezbollah forces battled both U.N. and
Israeli troops.
	Three other U.N. soldiers and were wounded in the fighting, which
apparently was triggered by a U.N. attack on a Hezbollah ambulance that
refused to stop at a U.N. checkpoint, the officials said.
	The troops of the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon were hit when
Hezbollah shelled three UNIFIL positions in Kafra, 10 miles east of
Tyre, and the nearby village of Srobbine, UNIFIL spokesman Timor Goksel
said.
	UNIFIL commanders made immediate contact with the Hezbollah
leadership in Beirut and southern Lebanon ``to settle this problem,''
another UNIFIL spokesman in Tyre said.
	The shelling was among a series of attacks that came a few hours
after Israeli warplanes blasted a Hezbollah base in the village of
Siddiqine, 8 miles east of Tyre.
	Sources of the Muslim Resistance Movement, the military arm of
Hezbollah, said one its squads ambushed an Israeli patrol in a valley
located between the villages of Yater and Kafra, 10 miles east of Tyre,
at 1:15 p.m.
	A firefight broke out during which the Muslim guerrillas used
machine-gun fire and rocket-propelled grenades, the sources said. No
immediate details on casualties or damage in the fight were reported.
	Shortly afterward, Nepalese peacekeepers opened fire on a Hezbollah
ambulance trying to cross their checkpoint near the village of Kafra,
Lebanese police said.
	The ambulance driver, identified as Jawad, died after being hit by
five bullets in the chest, the sources said. Another Hezbollah member
was wounded.
	The ambulance apparently was moving to evacuate casualties from the
nearby valley where Israelis and Muslim guerrillas were still fighting,
the sources said.
	The sources said Hezbollah members apparently refused to allow the
Nepalese soldiers to search the ambulance, triggering the shooting.
	In retaliation, guerrillas believed to be Hezbollah members opened
fire on a UNIFIL armored personnel carrier of the French battalion on
the road leading to Yater, a UNIFIL source said.
	The vehicle was hit and damaged but no casualties were reported, the
source said.
	The source said the guerrillas also fired machine guns and rocket-
propelled grenades on a Nepalese position in Yater. The peacekeepers
returned fire ``in self-defense,'' he said. There was no immediate word
on casualties.
	The UNIFIL source said the attacks were ``linked to what happened
earlier at the Nepalese checkpoint with the Hezbollah.''
	The UNIFIL spokesman in Tyre said his command ``regretted the
incident and the killing of the Hezbollah member.''
	The Israel Army said earlier Thursday its Air Force jets overnight 
``attacked a Hezbollah terrorist target'' near the village of Siddiqine,
8 miles east of the southern port city of Tyre.
	``The jets hit the target used by Hezbollah guerrillas as a base to
launch attacks against the Israeli forces,'' the Army said. ``All planes
returned safely to their base.''
	Hezbollah said in a communique released in Beirut that the Israeli
air strike ``targeted a house belonging to Youssef Balhas,'' causing
only material damage. Balhas, his wife and children were out of the
house at the time of the raid, Hezbollah said.
	Israel on Wednesday threatened harsh retaliation if Hezbollah
fighters resume firing Soviet-made Katyusha rockets on northern Israel
and attacking Israeli positions inside Israel's self-proclaimed 
``security zone'' in southern Lebanon.
	Lebanese sources said they feared Israel might launch a military
operation to extend the border zone with the aim of neutralizing
Hezbollah.
	Violence mounted after Israeli warplanes on Sunday raided Hezbollah
positions in the Ein El Tineh village in the southwestern Bekaa Valley,
killing four guerrillas and wounding six others.
	Israel established the ``security zone'' in 1985 with the aim of
stopping attacks on its northern border towns. The 9-mile zone is
patrolled by some 1,000 Israeli servicemen and the SLA militiamen.
	U.N. sources affirmed this week that Israel dispatched hundreds of
tank-backed troops and brought 64 cannons to the three sectors of the
border enclave.