A military spokesman denied today a Beirut radio report that a suicide car-bomb attack killed or wounded more than 100 Israeli soldiers near Tyre in south Lebanon.
The military announced yesterday that 10 Israeli soldiers had been wounded, nine of them only slightly, when a booby-trapped car exploded as their convoy passed the Bourj Ash-Shemali refugee camp east of Tyre. The spokesman said that incident was apparently responsible for the grossly exaggerated Beirut radio report today.
It occurred near the same spot where two Israeli soldiers were wounded the day before by a roadside bomb, bringing to 12 the number of IDF casualties in south Lebanon in a 24-hour period. An army spokesman said several residents of Marakha village, 10 kilometers east of Tyre, have been arrested for questioning in connection with these and other incidents. They were found in possession of arms, ammunition and sobotage material.
According to the IDF account of yesterday’s attack, soldiers riding in open-sided troop carriers opened fire on a car that suddenly appeared on the raod racing toward their convoy. As the car passed the lead vehicle, it exploded, killing its driver who was identified as a Shiite Moslem.
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