Israelis Attack Guerrillas in Lebanon; 4 Die

Israeli troops and allied militiamen rolled out of Israel’s self-styled security zone Friday to pursue guerrillas after a clash left two Israeli soldiers wounded and two guerrillas dead, security sources said.

One source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said seven Israeli tanks led the advance from Beit Lif toward the village of Srobbine, just outside the zone in southern Lebanon bordering Israel.

The Israelis later brought in two more tanks, two armored personnel carriers and two infantry units made up of 31 Israeli soldiers to a hill overlooking the villages of Srobbine, Kafra and Yater, the source said.

Military sources in Israel denied that the Israeli troops had gone outside the security zone.

The Lebanese source said the Israeli troops and militiamen of the Israeli-allied South Lebanon Army fired their machine guns in the direction of suspected guerrilla hide-outs in Srobbine as two helicopters strafed the area.

Long-range Israeli artillery shelled the outskirts of the towns to cover the advance of the troops.

The source said guerrillas of the Iranian-backed Hezbollah, or Party of God, fired mortar rounds from near Kafra and Yater at the advancing troops in Srobbine.

The push came nearly three hours after unidentified guerrillas ambushed an Israeli patrol on the road between Beit Lif and Rchaf half a mile north of Srobbine, slightly wounding two Israeli soldiers, the source said.

The Islamic Resistance, the military wing of Hezbollah, said in a statement issued in Beirut that the guerrillas blew up “an enemy vehicle” early Thursday in the vicinity of Toumat Niha, on the eastern edge of the security zone.

“The vehicle was destroyed and all its occupants were killed or wounded,” the statement said.

The report could not be independently confirmed.