The Israel Defense Force is taking strong countermeasures against attempts by the pro-Iranian Hezbollah to sabotage the Middle East peace conference by escalating violence in southern Lebanon.
An IDF force of about 50 infantrymen, supported by three tanks and two armored personnel carriers, advanced more than a mile beyond the southern Lebanon security zone Tuesday night.
They took up positions overlooking Hezbollah concentrations in the Syrian controlled Bekaa Valley in eastern Lebanon.
Meanwhile, artillery of the IDF and its allied South Lebanon Army continued the bombardment of Shi’ite villages in southern Lebanon that have given support and shelter to Hezbollah guerrillas.
The Islamic fundamentalist militia, whose name means Party of God, said it would continue to harass Israel to thwart the peace conference, due to open in Madrid on Oct. 30.
Disregarding IDF warnings of retaliation, Hezbollah claimed responsibility for planting a road mine that slightly wounded three SLA soldiers Wednesday and damaged their armored vehicle.
It detonated two remote-control explosives aimed at IDF vehicles in the security zone Tuesday. One Israeli soldier was bruised.
The most serious casualties occurred Sunday, when a remote-control device blew up an IDF vehicle in the security zone, killing three soldiers and wounding two. Hezbollah promptly claimed credit.
Defense Minister Moshe Arens, visiting the scene, accused the Lebanese regular army of deliberately failing to disarm Hezbollah, although it has disarmed all other militias in its drive to assert the Beirut government’s authority in southern Lebanon.
But according to Arens, Hezbollah was left intact on orders from the Syrian authorities, who are in de facto control of Lebanon.
The Lebanese army, in fact, has avoided entering the Bekaa Valley, where fierce fighting was reported Wednesday between Hezbollah and the mainstream Shi’ite militia, Amal.
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