DATE=5/18/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=ISRAEL / LEBANON (L)
NUMBER=2-262522
BYLINE=MEREDITH BUEL
DATELINE=JERUSALEM
CONTENT=
VOICE AT:
INTRO: Fierce fighting has erupted in southern
Lebanon. Correspondent Meredith Buel reports from
Jerusalem.
TEXT: Hezbollah guerrillas are stepping up their
rocket and artillery attacks against military
positions manned by Israeli soldiers and their militia
allies in southern Lebanon.
Mortars and rockets fell on military outposts,
injuring Israeli soldiers and fighters for the South
Lebanon Army (S-L-A). A U-N peacekeeper from Fiji was
also hurt during an exchange of fire between Hezbollah
and the Israeli army.
Israel retaliated for the attacks with repeated
strikes by warplanes and helicopter gunships, and
artillery pounding suspected guerrilla hideouts.
Lebanese security officials in the port city of Tyre
say a woman and her two daughters in a nearby village
(Mansouri) were wounded by shrapnel.
Iranian-backed Hezbollah guerrillas are fighting a war
of attrition against Israel, which maintains a 15-
kilometer-wide buffer zone in southern Lebanon to
protect against cross-border attacks.
The Israeli government has promised to withdraw its
forces from southern Lebanon by July. Prime Minister
Ehud Barak was elected one-year ago on a pledge to
bring the soldiers home.
Israeli Deputy Defense Minister Ephraim Sneh told army
radio the withdrawal is taking place because of
growing public opposition to casualties in Lebanon.
In Mr. Sneh's words - that is the whole truth, there
is no point in pretending.
The U-N Security Council is expected to meet soon to
decide whether to increase the size of the U-N
peacekeeping force in Lebanon, after the Israeli
withdrawal. There are about 45-hundred U-N
peacekeepers in the country.
Prime Minister Barak is expected to discuss the issue
when he meets President Clinton and Secretary of State
Madeleine Albright next week in Washington.
Israel has begun handing over military outposts to the
South Lebanon Army, and has started moving men and
equipment across the border. (SIGNED)
NEB/MB/JWH/ENE/RAE
18-May-2000 11:05 AM EDT (18-May-2000 1505 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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