5 Islamic Guerrillas Slain in S. Lebanon, Israeli Army Says
Israeli troops killed five Islamic fundamentalist guerrillas in a fierce three-hour firefight Thursday in Israel’s self-declared security zone in southern Lebanon, an Israeli army spokesman said.
The spokesman told army radio in Jerusalem that an Israeli patrol encountered a guerrilla squad near the Zemraya crossing, killing all its members.
“We believe that the terrorists belonged to the Hezbollah (Party of God),” Maj. Gen. Yossi Peled, head of the northern command, told Israel Army Radio.
“The equipment they carried indicates they were going to attack one of the command posts or place an explosive device in the security zone,” he said.
The Zemraya passageway is one of five crossings linking Israel’s self-declared “security zone” to Muslim-controlled territory. The enclave, which runs up to nine miles deep along the Lebanese border, was established in 1985.
A spokesman of the Israeli-backed South Lebanon Army said its troops took part in the three-hour gunfight.
The violence broke out after a land-mine blast ripped through an South Lebanon Army patrol as it was combing the terrain near Hasbayya, 37 miles southeast of Beirut, the spokesman said.
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