WORLD IN BRIEF : LEBANON : Israel Retaliates for Guerrilla Attacks

Israeli helicopter gunships, tanks and artillery pounded southern Lebanon to avenge daybreak guerrilla attacks on a border enclave occupied by Israel. A civilian and a pro-Israeli militiaman were killed in the hostilities, and two militiamen were wounded, police reported. The fighting clouded a new round of shuttle diplomacy between Israel and Syria by U.S. envoy Dennis Ross, who met during the day with Syrian President Hafez Assad and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. Syrian troops stationed in Lebanon control the flow of arms to the Iranian-backed guerrillas. The dawn attacks by Hezbollah guerrillas targeted a series of militia outposts in the border enclave. In reprisal, gunners from the Israeli-sponsored South Lebanon Army as well as from Israel unleashed heavy artillery fire on a group of Hezbollah-controlled villages north of the zone.