World

Fighting Erupts In Lebanon

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

August 17, 1999 / 3:35 PM EDT / CBS

A day after one of its top commanders was killed in a roadside bomb, pro-Iranian Hezbollah launched raids against Israeli troops in southern Lebanon Tuesday, killing two Israeli soldiers and wounding six others.

The deaths were sure to amplify calls on Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak to make good on his election eve pledge to pull Israeli troops out of their 9-mile deep Â"security zoneÂ" in Lebanon.

Israel sent its air force on two bombing runs during the fierce artillery, mortar and rocket battles, which raged for nearly four hours in a valley in a no-man's land across from the Israeli-occupied zone.

There was no immediate confirmation from Israel on its casualties or on the fighting, the most serious since Israeli air raids killed 10 Lebanese people in June.

However, security sources said one of the wounded officers was a lieutenant-colonel.

If confirmed, the Israeli combat fatalities would be the first in Lebanon since Prime Minister Ehud Barak took office in July.

Speaking in the southern Israeli town of Beersheba, Barak referred to the escalation in Lebanon and suggested the fighting Â"will be what makes it possible in the end to remove the Israeli army from Lebanon by agreement and deploy it on the international border.Â"

Barak has pledged to pull the army out of Lebanon within a year.

The exchanges in Lebanon started several bush fires in nearby hills and valleys, sending clouds of heavy smoke in the air.

The Iranian-backed Hezbollah group said its guerrillas were retaliating for the death of Hezbollah commander Ali Hassan Deeb, better known as Abu Hassan, who was killed in a roadside bomb explosion in the southern port city of Sidon on Monday.

Hezbollah and the Lebanese government blamed Israel for the bombing, although no one has claimed responsibility.

Thousands of Hezbollah supporters and clerics gathered in Beirut's predominantly Shi'ite Muslim southern suburbs for Abu HassanÂ's funeral Tuesday, where his coffin was draped in the group's machine-gun-emblazoned flag and he was proclaimed a martyr.

At the funeral, Hezbollah secretary general Sheik Hassan Nasrallah promised the attack would intensify the guerrilla's determination to fight on.

"They (Israel) will not shake our resolve or dampen the spirit of our resistance fighters. They have taken away the bodies of our martyrs but not their spirit," Nasrallah said.

Israeli television said Monday that Abu Hassan was on the top of Israel's most wanted list for carrying out attacks against Israeli soldiers in southern Lebanon.

Israel's army chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Shaul Mofaz, suggested Tuesday that Abu Hassan's death was the result of a power struggle among the guerrillas themselves.

Â"We are not in the habit of interfering in the internal rivalry between the terrorist organizations in Lebanon,Â" he said.