Message Boards: Middle East: Struggle for peace

February 28, 1999
Web posted at: 4:53 p.m. EST (2153 GMT)

MARJAYOUN, Lebanon (CNN) -- Lebanese guerrillas detonated two bombs near an Israeli convoy Sunday, killing four people, Lebanese officials said, including a general.

In Beirut, the Iranian-backed Hezbollah group claimed responsibility for the two bombings -- which reportedly took place in Kawkaba village, inside Israel's south Lebanon occupation zone.

The general, the highest ranking officer killed in Lebanon in more than 16 years, was identified as the head of an Israeli liaison unit with the Israeli-allied South Lebanon Army militia.

Security officials said two other soldiers, including a colonel, were among those killed, while the fourth casualty was believed to be an Israeli civilian.

The Israeli military did not comment on the attack or casualties.

"This operation confirms our determination to continue our struggle until liberating our land," said Hezbollah Deputy Secretary-General Naeem Qasem, in a broadcast interview. "We will not accept any conditional Israeli withdrawal and Israel should bear the consequences of its own deeds," he added.

On Tuesday, Hezbollah ambushed an Israeli unit, killing its commander and two other officers and wounding five soldiers.

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in Amman, Jordan, to meet with King Abdullah, called the attacks in Lebanon "an acute problem," and promised a response.

"Certainly Israel could not tolerate these kind of repeated attacks on its territory, on its citizens, on its soldiers," he said. "And Israel will know what to do in response."

Witnesses said Israeli warplanes and helicopters hovered over southern Lebanon and access to the area of Sunday's attack was blocked.

Israeli warplanes later struck suspected guerrilla hideouts in the hills of Wadi Zileya in southern Lebanon, the Israeli military said.

There was no immediate report of casualties in the attack, which raised to 21 the number of Israeli air assaults on Lebanon so far this year.

Israel has pledged to withdraw from south Lebanon, provided Lebanon makes certain security guarantees. But Lebanon and Syria, the main power broker in the country with about 35,000 troops stationed there, have rejected the offer, claiming that U.N. Resolution 425 demands an unconditional withdrawal from the area by Israel.

Seven Israeli soldiers have been killed and 13 wounded in south Lebanon since the start of 1999.

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