JERUSALEM (JTA) — A group linked to al-Qaida botched an attempt to fire a rocket into Israel from Lebanon.
A Katyusha launched from southern Lebanon fell short Monday, wounding a woman in the village of Hula, just over the border from Israel, according to Israel’s Army Radio, which cited Lebanese security officials.
The Abdullah Azzam Brigades, a terrorist group named after a Palestinian who helped found al-Qaida, took responsibility.
A rocket salvo from Lebanon struck northern Israel late last month, causing no casualties but shaking confidence in the frontier’s quiet holding. Last week, a bomb wounded French troops in a U.N. peacekeeper force in southern Lebanon, where Israeli troops and Hezbollah guerrillas fought a war in 2006.
Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Moshe Yaalon said in a Jerusalem briefing that the spate of violence "serves Syrian interests" — a suggestion that Damascus, which has been beset by months of civil war and citizen revolts, sought to distract world attention.
