Israel Returns Hezbollah Remains

Guerrillas' Bodies Given To Lebanon Amid Rising Tensions

(AP) 
Monday's fighting, in which 11 Israeli soldiers were also wounded, was the heaviest in recent times and saw Israeli warplanes and artillery bombard Hezbollah positions and guerrillas fire missiles at Israeli military outposts.

Fighting briefly resumed Wednesday when an Israeli civilian in a hang glider drifted across the border and landed inside Lebanon. Israeli troops shot at Hezbollah guerrillas to prevent them capturing the civilian as he ran back to Israel. Also Wednesday, Israeli planes dropped thousands of anti-Hezbollah leaflets over Beirut and other Lebanese regions.

Prime Minister Fuad Saniora called for the return of the guerrillas' bodies to help defuse the tensions. Lebanese Health Minister Mohammed Jawad Khalife, whose Amal Shiite Muslim group is allied with Hezbollah, warned Thursday that the militant group might try to kidnap Israelis to trade for the bodies.

A newspaper close to Hezbollah also reported that the militant Shiite Muslim guerrillas have warned they might consider ignoring a cease-fire if the bodies are not returned.

The return of the bodies comes as the U.N. Security Council accused Hezbollah of starting this week's attacks. In a statement on Wednesday, the council appealed for restraint.

But Lebanon's government, of which Hezbollah is a coalition partner, backed the guerrillas despite the international pressure.

Reacting to the U.N. Security council statement, Foreign Minister Fawzi Salloukh said Lebanon's repeated complaints about Israeli violations "were not met with the necessary decisiveness" by the international community.

Hezbollah, a close ally of Syria and Iran, has denied initiating the attacks. But it is thought the group may have been trying both to capture Israeli soldiers for a future exchange of prisoners and to take the international pressure off Syria, which is at the center of a U.N. probe into the assassination of former Lebanese premier Rafik Hariri.

Last year, Hezbollah swapped an Israeli businessman and the bodies of three Israeli soldiers for about 400 Palestinian and Lebanese prisoners.