World

Israelis Ambushed In Lebanon

February 23, 1999 / 2:16 AM EST / AP

Hezbollah guerrillas firing machine guns ambushed Israeli commandos in southern Lebanon Tuesday, killing three officers and wounding five other soldiers, the guerrillas and officials said.

Israel retaliated with artillery shells, and hours later its warplanes let loose four missiles after helicopter gun ships had strafed the area, Lebanese security officials said. Israel confirmed the air raids and said its planes returned safely. There was no word on casualties from the airstrikes.

In Jerusalem, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the deaths "a very very bitter blow for us."

"There is no question that this is very big toll for Israel," he told reporters. He said one of the wounded was a personal friend. Netanyahu was scheduled to visit the wounded in hospital.

The highest ranking officer killed, a 30-year-old major, commanded an elite paratrooper force, an Israeli army spokesman said.

The fatalities were Israel's first this year in southern Lebanon, much of which Israel occupies as a "security zone" to protect its northern towns from attacks by guerrillas, mainly the Iranian-backed Shiite Hezbollah group.

A Hezbollah statement said its fighters intercepted a unit of Israeli commandos on the edge of the security zone as they were trying to sneak into unoccupied Lebanon.

The guerrillas fired machine guns and hurled grenades from about 12 feet away, killing or injuring 15 soldiers, the statement said.

An Israeli military spokesman confirmed the deaths of the major and two lieutenants, aged 21 and 22. An officer and four soldiers were injured, one of them seriously, he said.

The soldiers belonged to an elite paratrooper commando unit.

Maj. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi, head of the Israeli army's Northern Command which is in charge of the Lebanon front, said Israeli commandos were out to attack the guerrillas, who surprised them and opened fire first.

The two parties fought at close range, he said. Warplanes and artillery guns were deployed to cover the evacuation of the Israeli unit.

The Israeli troops "acted appropriately and with courage," Ashkenazi said.

The Hezbollah statement said helicopters strafing the area provided cover for Israeli troops evacuating their dead and the wounded. It said the guerrillas suffered no casualties and seized Israeli military gear and ammunition abandoned at the scene.

In another statement, the Hezbollah said it attacked at least four Israeli outposts in southern Lebanon Tuesday, "scoring direct hits." The claim could not be independently verified.

Israel has maintained some 1,500 troops aided by 2,500 allied Lebanese militiamen to control the South Lebanon security zone since 1985. Hezbollah, or the Party of God, has since been leading the fight to end the occupation.

Twenty-four Israeli soldiers were killed in southern Lebanon last year, fueling demands in Israel fr a withdrawal of its troops.

Tuesday's ambush is the most serious military confrontation since September 1997 when 12 Israeli navy commandos were killed in South Lebanon.