Israeli Raid Said to Kill 3 Lebanese Guerrillas

TYRE, Lebanon — Israeli forces killed three Hezbollah guerrillas in southern Lebanon on Saturday in fierce clashes that included air raids and artillery exchanges, Israeli-backed militia sources said.

Hezbollah said it had no information on the reports of casualties that came during southern Lebanon’s worst cross-border violence since a cease-fire ended a 17-day Israeli blitz on Lebanon in April 1996.

The violence was apparently triggered by a Hezbollah rocket and machine gun attack against an Israeli position inside the Jewish state’s occupation zone, security sources said.

They said Israeli forces responded with fierce shelling and three air strikes against suspected Hezbollah posts about eight miles east of the port city of Tyre, which is about 50 miles south of Beirut.

Ground fighting then ensued, and pro-Israeli militia sources said three guerrillas were killed. There was no immediate word on Israeli or civilian casualties.

Also Saturday, a bomb exploded in central Beirut, killing a military official of the Shiite Muslim Amal movement and a driver of a pro-Syrian minister, a source close to the minister said.

The pro-Syrian Amal blamed Israel for the explosion that killed Khalil Musawi.

The blast also claimed the life of Abdel Reda Barakat, a driver for the Amal movement and part-time driver of Social Affairs Minister Ayub Humayid.

Humayid is a senior political official of Amal, Lebanon’s mainstream Shiite group, which has maintained a military arm in southern Lebanon that frequently attacks Israeli forces occupying the border zone.