Three Israeli soldiers were killed in southern Lebanon on Monday when members of the Islamic fundamentalist Hezbollah movement ambushed their patrol.
Another three Israeli soldiers were wounded in the ambush, and an armored personnel carrier was destroyed, when Hezbollah fighters fired mortars and rockets on the patrol.
Monday’s casualties were the heaviest sustained by the Israel Defense Force since Feb. 7, when four Israeli soldiers were killed and five others wounded in a Hezbollah attack.
The ambush was followed by heavy artillery exchanges between Hezbollah and the IDF.
The ambush occurred hours after Israeli air force planes attacked hilltop bases of Hezbollah in eastern Lebanon, the second such attack in two days.
An IDF spokesman said the pilots who took part in the two raids reported accurate air-to-ground hits on all their targets and said that all planes returned safely to their bases.
There was no immediate word of casualties from the air assault among members of Hezbollah, which militantly opposes the Israeli-Palestinian peace initiative.
Monday’s air attack was the fifth raid on Hezbollah targets in the same general region in eastern Lebanon since Israel’s massive June 2 air force raid on a Hezbollah base in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley.
As many as 50 Hezbollah members were reported killed in that strike and up to 200 were wounded.
While the IDF spokesman would not pinpoint the reason for the latest series of air attacks, observers believe they are designed to pressure Syria, the leading power broker in Lebanon, to return to negotiations with Israel.
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