Israeli Gunners Shell Pro-Iranian Units in S. Lebanon
Israeli gunners pounded pro-Iranian militants in South Lebanon on Wednesday as fighting between Shiite Muslim factions entered its 10th day.
Security sources said that tanks and artillery rolled across Israel’s northern border during the night to reinforce militia units in an anti-guerrilla buffer strip and take up positions on hills overlooking the Shiites’ battleground.
The Israelis and their local militia allies, the South Lebanon Army, shelled all parties--the pro-Iranian Hezbollah, the pro-Syrian Amal and Amal’s Palestinian backers--but concentrated on Hezbollah-held villages, the sources said.
“Shells are falling at the rate of three a minute. It’s very heavy,” said a source in the Bekaa Valley.
Heavy shelling from all sides, meanwhile, blasted the ruined village of Jarjou, which Hezbollah captured from Amal 10 days ago and held Tuesday against an Amal assault backed by the Palestine Liberation Organization.
Security sources said two people were killed and four wounded in Wednesday’s fighting, raising the toll to 137 killed and 254 wounded since July 16.
The Hezbollah-Amal conflict is a mini-war within Lebanon’s 15-year-old Christian-Muslim struggle.
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