4 Lebanese Killed in Fighting on Border with Israel
Robert Berger 03 August 2010
Lebanese and Israeli troops have exchanged fire along their border in a battle that Lebanese officials say killed four people on their side and wounded several Israelis.
Tuesday's fighting is the most serious in the area since Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah militant group fought a month-long war in 2006.
Lebanese officials say Israeli shelling killed three Lebanese troops, a journalist with the Al-Akhbar newspaper, and wounded several other people in the border town of Adaisseh. They say several Israeli troops also were wounded.
There were conflicting reports of what sparked the fighting. Lebanese officials say it began when Israeli troops tried to uproot a tree in a disputed border area. Israel says its forces came under fire inside Israeli territory.
The Associated Press published a photo appearing to show an Israeli on a crane reaching over a fence along the Israeli-Lebanese border.
Israel warned Lebanon of consequences if the fighting continues. Lebanese President Michel Suleiman accused Israel of violating the U.N. Security Council resolution that ended the 2006 war.
He urged Lebanese forces to confront Israeli attacks whatever the cost.
U.N. peacekeepers in Lebanon urged both sides to exercise "maximum restraint." A spokesman for the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) said its immediate priority is to "restore calm" in the border region.
U.N. peacekeepers patrol southern Lebanon to monitor the 2006 cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah. The 34-day long war killed about 1,200 Lebanese and 160 Israelis. It began when Hezbollah kidnapped two Israeli soldiers and killed others in a cross-border raid.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP and Reuters.
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