IMEMC: Hezbollah gunmen say they foiled Israeli attack in eastern Lebanon

Hezbollah gunmen say they foiled Israeli attack in eastern Lebanon

Saed Bannoura | IMEMC & Agencies | Saturday, 19 August 2006, 17:05

Hezbollah gunmen said on Saturday that they foiled an Israeli invasion attempt west of Ba'labek in eastern Lebanon; one Israeli soldier was killed and two others were injured, the Qatar based Al Jazeera TV reported on their website.

Lebanese security sources said that Israeli aircraft and commandos invaded on Saturday at dawn, the village of Bodai, west of Ba'labek in Al Biqa' valley.

While air dropping paratroopers, the Israeli air craft shelled unidentified targets in the area.

Al-Manar TV that belongs to Hezbollah party, reported that Hezbollah fighters clashed with Israeli troops near Bodai and forced them to leave the area using military helicopters.

Al Manar added that the Israeli unit landed before dawn, the paratroopers were dropped with a military vehicles and drove into the village when they were intercepted by the fighters, who forced it to retreat.

According to Lebanese sources, three Hezbollah fighters were killed in the firefight.

Israeli military sources confirmed that infiltration attempt which marked the widest violation of the five-day-old cease fire that ended 34 days of war on Lebanon.

Army spokesperson claimed that the attack was carried out to foil an attempt to transfer weapons from Syria and Iran to Hezbollah.

The Israeli army said that only one of the soldiers wounded was in a serious condition and the other suffered light injuries.

Fuad Saniora, the Lebanese Prime Minister, and Fawzi Sallukh, the Lebanese foreign minister, slammed the Israeli attack and said that they will take up the issue to the Security Council since it is a clear violation to the UN-brokered cease-fire agreement.

Saniora said that he complained to a U.N delegation that visited him on Saturday morning, and that he would take up the matter with Kofi Anan.

Fawzi Sallukh, the Lebanese foreign minister, said that he discussed the issue with Vijay Nambiar and Terje Roed-Larsen, the visiting UN envoys. He said they pledged to ask Israel to stop violations of Lebanese territory, Al Jazeera said.

Sallukh said after the meting that Nambair and Roed-Larsen promised to raise the issue with Israel and to ask them to stop these violations.

"If violations continue, Sallukh said, “the responsibility will fall on the UN Security Council which will have to ask Israel to stop such aggressions", Al Jazeera said.

a United Nations source said that Nambiar and Roed-Larsen went to Lebanon to try to ensure that both sides implemented the truce resolution.

Meanwhile, Mark Regev, the spokesperson of Israel's Foreign Ministry, said that Israel has the right “to defend the principle of the arms embargo”.