Lebanese Hizbollah guerrillas attacked Israeli military positions in a disputed frontier area Monday, drawing Israeli artillery fire and air strikes on south Lebanese border towns, witnesses said. In Jerusalem, Israeli Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer's office said he spoke by telephone with Secretary of State Colin Powell and asked him to press Syria, the main powerbroker in Lebanon, to rein in Hizbollah. Brigadier-General Shuki Shichrur of Israel's northern command said at a Jerusalem news briefing "a small number" of Israeli reservists had been called up for service in the north and more would be mobilized if the situation deteriorated. The witnesses said the Syrian-backed guerrillas fired anti-tank missiles and mortar rounds at Israeli army posts in the Shebaa Farms, a disputed patch of land near the border between Lebanon, Israel and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
The Israeli army said Hizbollah fire also hit the northern Golan Heights, wounding one person. Israel responded by shelling the fringes of the nearby Lebanese border town of Kfar Shouba as a column of black smoke rose from one Israeli position in the Shebaa Farms and Israeli jets pounded the edges of other towns with rockets. There were no immediate reports of injuries. Witnesses said at least one Israeli military vehicle was hit by Hizbollah rockets, but there was no independent confirmation of that. |