The Israel Defense Force is continuing to come under attack in south Lebanon and is in turn, pressing its searches of Shiite villages for suspected terrorists and weapons. Two attacks with Katyusha rockets and rocket-propelled grenades last night caused no casualties.
IDF forces today searched Tir Zibne village east of Tyre. According to sources of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), 300 male villagers were rounded up in the local schoolhouse for interrogation. UNIFIL said it was the 35th village searched by the IDF since the “iron fist” policy began a month ago.
Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin today visited the site of the Ansar detention camp in south Lebanon which is being dismantled and the new prison camp inside Israel where about 1,200 Ansar inmates have been transferred. (See separate story.)
Speaking to reporters later in Nahariya, Rabin repeated that if Shiite gunmen continued their forays against the IDF, the IDF would strike back with all the force at its disposal.
He said the extent of the proposed “security zone” to be established just north of the international border after the IDF leaves Lebanon has been determined. He would not disclose the size of the zone but said it would be patrolled by the Israel-backed South Lebanon Army (SLA).
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