Guerrillas Kill 3 Israeli Soldiers, Militiaman in S. Lebanon

Guerrillas in southern Lebanon killed three Israeli soldiers and a pro-Israeli militiaman in overnight ambushes, and Israel warplanes struck back Wednesday by bombing two Shiite Muslim villages.

An Israeli patrol was hit near the town of Jezzine in what Israeli officials described as a well-planned ambush. The attackers were identified as part of the Hezbollah group, an Iranian-backed organization that is believed to hold several Western hostages.

In retaliation for the Jezzine ambush, in which two officers and a sergeant died, Israeli jets hit the nearby hamlet of Toumat Neeha with 10 missiles, reports from Lebanon said.

In response to the second ambush, in which one militiaman of the Israeli-backed South Lebanon Army was killed, jets bombed a village in southwestern Lebanon, destroying at least three houses.

Jezzine lies north of Israel’s self-described security zone on the Israeli-Lebanese border. In a new policy, Israel has been sending armed groups north of the security zone to interdict guerrillas heading south. The overnight ambush on the Israeli patrol foiled one of those “initiated actions,” Israel Radio said.

Israel has struck Lebanon by air at least 14 times this year and unleashed numerous artillery barrages.

The ambushes and counterattacks underline the increasingly volatile atmosphere in southern Lebanon, where numerous armed groups are engaged in a shifting contest of control.

The Israeli army and its client, the Christian-led militia, are squaring off against Shiite Muslim guerrillas on the one hand and on the other, the army of Lebanon’s government, which is trying to extend its control southward.