Units of the Israel Defense Force and the Israel-backed South Lebanon Army (SLA) engaged in a day-long running battle Monday with the extremist Shiite Hezbullah north of the south Lebanon security zone.
Nine Hezbullah fighters were killed. There were no IDF or SLA casualties. Israeli military authorities appeared to blame the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) for allowing the Hezbullah to occupy UNIFIL territory. UNIFIL headquarters in Lebanon said Tuesday that the Hezbullah militia overran a UNIFIL position manned by Nepalese troops and that reinforcements from French and Irish contingents were unable to reach the position because of the intense fighting.
But officers of the IDF northern command denounced UNIFIL’s actions as “shameful.”
The battle involved Israeli helicopter gun-ships and artillery. It developed when IDF and SLA patrols, searching for the site of terrorist Katyusha rocket launchers aimed at Israeli territory, encountered the Hezbullah near Yaatar village just north of the security zone and about six miles from the Galilee village of Shutulla.
The Hezbullah troops used rocket-propelled grenades, mortars and machineguns when the IDF and SLA opened fire on them. Both sides brought up reinforcements. The battle lasted from dawn until nightfall.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
