BEIRUT: At least two Israeli soldiers were killed and half a dozen others injured in a Hezbollah attack in the occupied Shebaa Farms, in south Lebanon Wednesday, reports said.
Media reports quoting an Israeli military source, reported that an anti-tank missile was fired at an Israeli military vehicle near the Lebanon border, killing four soldiers. One Lebanese security sources said the attack struck a convoy, damaging two vehicles.
Hezbollah issued a statement, it dubbed, “statement number 1,” adopting the attack on the Israeli military convoy.
“At 11:25 [Wednesday morning] the Quneitra Martyrs unit targeted with appropriate missile weapons an Israeli military convoy comprising several vehicles and [transporting] Zionist officers and soldiers causing the destruction of several vehicles and inflicting many casualties on the enemy,” the brief Hezbollah statement read.
The incident came several hours after Israel launched an airstrike in Syria amid tensions that have escalated in the frontier area over the past 10 days.
The Israeli military source said Israeli helicopters were deployed after the anti-tank missile struck the vehicle and the army was checking whether there had been any attempt to abduct one of the soldiers.
The attack comes after an Israeli airstrike on a Hezbollah convoy in the Syrian town of Quneitra, on Jan. 18 that killed an Iranian Revolutionary Guard general along with six Hezbollah fighters, including the son of slain Hezbollah commander Imad Mughniyeh.
Earlier Israeli aircraft struck Syrian army artillery positions in the morning, the military said.
The airstrike were carried out on targets in areas under the control of Syrian President Bashar Assad.
Following January 18 attack, both Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran and fought a 34-day war with Israel in 2006, and the Revolutionary Guards vowed to avenge the deaths.
Tehran said Tuesday it sent a warning to Israel through the United States over the killing of an Iranian general in the Israeli airstrike in Syria, the official IRNA news agency reported.
“We told the Americans that the leaders of the Zionist regime should await the consequences of their act,” IRNA quoted Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian as saying. Israel had “crossed our red lines,” he added.
The deputy foreign minister said Iran sent the message through diplomatic channels to U.S. officials, to hand over to Israel. He did not elaborate.
Since that airstrike, troops and civilians in northern israel and the Golan Heights have been on heightened alert and Israel has deployed an Iron Dome rocket interceptor unit near the Syrian border.
Follow this link to join our WhatsApp group: Join Now
Be Part of Quality Journalism |
Quality journalism takes a lot of time, money and hard work to produce and despite all the hardships we still do it. Our reporters and editors are working overtime in Kashmir and beyond to cover what you care about, break big stories, and expose injustices that can change lives. Today more people are reading Kashmir Observer than ever, but only a handful are paying while advertising revenues are falling fast. |
| ACT NOW |
| MONTHLY | Rs 100 |  |
| YEARLY | Rs 1000 | |
| LIFETIME | Rs 10000 | |
