Israeli Dies in Lebanon Ambush

Muslim guerrillas ambushed an Israeli patrol today, killing at least one soldier, after Israel’s air force twice attacked Hezbollah strongholds in south Lebanon.

The ambush occurred in a border enclave that Israeli troops have occupied in southern Lebanon since 1985. The zone is intended to guard against guerrilla raids into northern Israel.

Security sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said three Israelis were killed and three wounded in the ambush.

But military sources in Jerusalem said one Israeli soldier was killed and four were wounded.

The discrepancy could not be immediately resolved.

The ambush and the air strikes touched off artillery and rocket duels along the edge of the enclave, pitting Israeli troops and their Lebanese militia allies against Hezbollah fighters.

Lebanese sources said a Lebanese woman was killed, and five others, including two guerrillas, were wounded in the air strikes and ensuing artillery battles.

Police said two Israeli fighter-bombers fired two rockets targeting a Hezbollah base at midafternoon. An hour later, two jets bombed a village in the western sector of the Syrian-controlled Bekaa Valley of eastern Lebanon.

The Israeli soldiers were ambushed about an hour after the second air raid, the Lebanese sources said.

Security sources said that before the air raids, guerrillas fired machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades at two outposts manned by Israeli soldiers and South Lebanon Army militiamen in the central part of the buffer zone.