LEBANON/ISRAEL: 6 PEOPLE DI IN HEZBOLLAH ATTACKS

Описание: (1 Mar 2000) Arabic/Nat

Five Israeli-allied militiamen and one civilian have died in a bomb attack by Hezbollah guerrillas inside a southern Lebanon border strip held by Israel.

The militiamen were killed when a roadside bomb exploded early on Wednesday morning near a patrol of the South Lebanon Army (S-L-A).

Soon after the attack, Israeli artillery began shelling suspected guerrilla positions in southern Lebanon.

The twisted wreckage of an S-L-A jeep shows the gruesome aftermath of Wednesday's bombing.

The Israeli army says the slain militiamen had been on duty in Ein Kenia, about 15 kilometres (10 miles) north of the Israeli-Lebanese border.

Hezbollah - the Iranian-backed guerrilla group most active in southern Lebanon - claimed responsibility for the attack.

A statement issued in Beirut said the guerrillas struck the S-L-A patrol, which was leaving the area on a road between Ein Kenia and an adjacent S-L-A outpost after laying an ambush overnight.

Soon after the attack, Israeli artillery began shelling suspected guerrilla positions across the front line, blasting more than 150 shells near villages in the area.

The guerrillas also pounded S-L-A positions during the exchanges.

The three S-L-A militiamen who survived Wednesday's bombing were rushed to a hospital in the northern Israeli town of Nahariya.

SOUNDBITE: (Arabic)
"All that I remember is sitting in the Tower and then I heard an explosion."
SUPER CAPTION: Melish Mahmud, Wounded Soldier

Doctors said their injuries were not serious but the men would remain in hospital for the next couple of days.

The Israeli army also said the town of Hasbaya on the eastern end of the front line came under guerrilla fire, killing a Lebanese civilian and wounding another.

The attack was preceded by a series of hit-and-run guerrilla strikes against nearby S-L-A positions in southeastern Lebanon.

There was no immediate word on casualties from those attacks.

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