Two Israel Defense Force soldiers were kidnapped in south Lebanon Monday, two or three South Lebanon Army soldiers were killed and another SLA man is missing, after a three-car convoy of IDF and SLA soldiers was caught in an ambush at noon Monday, the IDF spokesman said.
The spokesman said that extensive searches by reinforced IDF troops were being carried out in the security zone near Beth Yahun village north of Bint J’bail and in the region north of the zone where the attackers presumably fled, probably taking their hostages with them. The incident occurred in the south Lebanon area patrolled by the Irish contingent of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).
According to military sources, the incident occurred when three civilian cars carrying the SLA and IDF men were on what was described as a routine patrol in the security zone north of Bint J’bail.
The first car, carrying two SLA soldiers, passed safely at a bend in the road near the checkpost at Beth Hanoun on the edge of the zone, but the second car, carrying an IDF officer and two SLA soldiers, was damaged by a roadside bomb. The two SLA men were killed.
The third car carried two IDF officers, an SLA driver and an SLA soldier, and it was apparently those in the third vehicle who were captured by terrorists, whose membership in any particular organization is so far unknown.
EXAGGERATED REPORTS DENIED
Military sources said the situation was still unclear, and further details were still awaited. But the sources denied the exaggerated reports from Sidon which spoke of a battle between the Irish UNIFIL soldiers and the IDF, or the movement of a large column of IDF tanks northwards.
The IDF sources said the present operation in Lebanon following the incident is to cut off escape routes to the kidnappers and their prisoners, and to try and find the location of the missing IDF and SLA soldiers. Beirut television was reported to have shown pictures of an IDF soldier it said had been captured.
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