Lebanese Army Responds To Israeli Aggression
3 Lebanese soldiers, journalist killed
Compiled by Davood Baqeri
Three Lebanese soldiers and a Lebanese journalist were killed and several Israeli soldiers wounded on Tuesday in clashes along the tense border, Lebanese security officials said.
"Three Lebanese soldiers were killed in the clashes today, one journalist was killed and one civilian was wounded," one official told AFP in Beirut.
"We also have reports of one Israeli soldier severely wounded."
Lebanese news sources reported that the journalist killed was Assaf Abou Rahhal, from the Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar.
Another security official said several Israeli soldiers had been wounded and that Israel was using loudspeakers urging a ceasefire in order to remove casualties.
Lebanon's Hezbollah TV, Al-Manar, reported that a top Israeli officer had been killed but there was no immediate confirmation from the Lebanese army or UN peacekeepers stationed in southern Lebanon.
Residents of the village of Adaysseh said shelling was continuing some two hours after the clashes broke out over Israeli attempt to uproot a tree on the Lebanese side of the fenced border.
A source inside Adaysseh told DPA that at least two houses were on fire. He added that an Israeli jet fired two rockets on the hills of Adaysseh, setting a field on fire.
Reports that at least one Katyusha rocket had landed in Israel proved to be false, the Israeli radio said. According to Reuters, Israeli artillery shelled a Lebanese village on Tuesday, after Lebanese Army troops fired warning shots at Israeli soldiers along the usually quiet but tense frontier, witnesses said. Witnesses said the Israeli army fired at least seven artillery shells at the village of Adaysseh. One shell hit a house and a Lebanese soldier and civilian were wounded, a security source said.
"It started when the Israelis wanted to cut a tree down inside Lebanon, the Lebanese army fired warning shots at them and they responded by shelling," the source said, adding the firing had stopped but tension was high.
"I heard some shots and some artillery shells. But I don't know from which side," a Reuters witness at the scene said. "I can see a fire in Adaysseh. "(UNIFIL) UN peacekeepers and army troops are in the area."
The tense border has been relatively quiet since a war in 2006 between Israeli forces and the Lebanese resistance group Hezbollah.
Aggression Condemned
Lebanese President Michel Sleiman and Prime Minister Saad Hariri on Tuesday slammed Israel's "aggression" against their country.
LAGI... RESPON DARI SHEIKH HASSAN NASRALLAH ....
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Tehran, August 4, IRNA – The Lebanese Army on Tuesday thwarted Israeli aggression, a new record of victory for the past four years after Israel suffered a humiliating setback from Hezbollah in 2006. |
Israeli spokesman said that Tel Aviv was shocked by the Lebanese reaction.
“It is because the Zionist regime used to see no reaction to its aggression on Lebanon in the air, at sea and on ground so far,” a university teacher specialist in the Middle East said.
“The Israeli army was dealt a great blow by Hezbollah of Lebanon in 2006 during 33-day fighting and the western governments who were introducing Israel as invincible were disappointed.”
The Lebanese army, which lacks combat hardware dealt a blow to Israel at Adeisseh border point on Tuesday, indicated high morale to defend their country.
Israel ventured into the aggression to escalate tension with Hezbollah. But, the Lebanese army managed to respond to the occupying regime without seeking support from Hezbollah.
Hezbollah stayed away with full alert and extended spiritual support for commanders of the Lebanese army.
Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrullah on Tuesday night expressed full support for the Lebanese army and said that Hezbollah is ready to assist the army to repulse Israeli troops.
But, the high morale of the Lebanese army made the Israeli army to retreat as it did in 2006 and during the aggression on Gaza on December 27, 2008-January 18, 2009.
Observers say that the Israeli aggression on Lebanon is in the context of a series of attempts made by Washington and the Saudi Arabia to undermine Hezbollah of Lebanon.
They say that Saudi King Abdullah visited Lebanon last week too get concession from Hezbollah in return for suspending the judicial case about Rafik Hariri’s assassination of which several Hezbollah supporters are accused.
Nasrullah called for bringing to justice those responsible for the assassination and said that the key for the terrorist assassination of Hariri is in Tel Aviv.
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