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Nightvision photo from previous Baalbek raid (IDF)
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| By Israel Insider staff and partners August 19, 2006 |
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Hezbollah fighters battled an Israeli commando force that landed early Saturday west of the guerrilla stronghold of Baalbek, killing an Israeli officer and wounding two other Israeli officers, one seriously, deep inside Lebanon, Lebanese and Israeli officials said.
Hezbollah said its guerrillas foiled the raid, but Israel said the raiding commando force completed its mission. However, Haaretz reported that one of the two jeeps with the raiding force was intercepted, hit, and forced to return to the helicopters that transported the force.
Lebanese security officials said three guerrillas were killed and three wounded, but a Hezbollah spokesman said there were no deaths among his fighters.
Witnesses said Israeli missiles destroyed a bridge during the commando raid, which would mark the first major violation of the U.N.-imposed cease-fire that ended 34 days of fighting between Hezbollah and Israeli forces. The cease-fire, which took effect Monday, calls on Hezbollah to stop its attacks and on Israel to refrain from offensive military action.
Lebanon's foreign minister said he immediately informed a visiting U.N. delegation of Israel's violation. Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora said the raid blatantly violated a United Nations truce between Israel and Hezbollah. "It is a naked violation of the cessation of hostilities declared by the Security Council," Siniora told reporters. Siniora said he would inform UN Secretary General Kofi Annan.
The Israeli army said Saturday's special forces operation aimed "to prevent and interfere with terror activity against Israel, especially the smuggling of arms from Iran and Syria to Hezbollah." The IDF said such operations would continue until "an effective monitoring unit" was in place to prevent Hezbollah from rebuilding its arsenal.
"If the Syrians and Iran continue to arm Hezbollah in violation of the (U.N. cease-fire) resolution, Israel is entitled to act to defend the principle of the arms embargo," Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said. "Once the Lebanese army and the international forces are active... then such Israeli activity will become superfluous."
Lebanese security officials confirmed the initial report on Hezbollah TV of a drop of Israeli commandos by helicopter on a hill outside the village of Boudai west of Baalbek in eastern Lebanon.
The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to release information to the media, said the Israelis apparently were seeking a guerrilla target in a nearby school but had no other details.
The officials also reported heavy Israeli overflights.
Such a bold operation risked the cease-fire, and suggested Israel may have been going after a major target near Baalbek -- perhaps to rescue two Israeli soldiers snatched by Hezbollah on July 12, or to try to capture a senior guerrilla official to trade for the soldiers.
Hezbollah has said it wants to exchange the two soldiers for Arab prisoners, but the U.N. cease-fire resolution demands Hezbollah unconditionally release the soldiers.
Local media said Sheik Mohammed Yazbek, a senior Hezbollah official in the Bekaa and a member of the Shura council of the group, may have been the target. Yazbek is a native of Boudai.
Israeli troops have killed several guerrillas who Israel said threatened its troops in south Lebanon since the cease-fire, and warplanes have flown over the country. But the commando raid was the most serious incident since Monday.
Lebanese Foreign Minister Fawzi Salloukh said Lebanese authorities found blood at the scene of the raid. Salloukh, speaking to reporters after meeting with U.N. envoy Terje Roed-Larsen in Beirut, said he informed the U.N. team of the latest Israeli cease-fire violation in Baalbek, and said the U.N. team would raise the issue with Israeli authorities.
"If Israel continues its violations, it is the responsibility of the (U.N.) Security Council to take action and ask Israel to stop these violations," he said.
A provincial government official, Bekaa Valley Gov. Antoine Suleiman, confirmed the Israeli troop landing. He told the privately owned Voice of Lebanon radio station that the landing party brought with it two vehicles that were later withdrawn after clashes.
Hezbollah's Al-Manar TV said the Israeli commando force landed before dawn and was driving into Boudai when it was intercepted by guerrillas, who forced it to retreat under the cover of warplanes, which staged mock raids.
The Hezbollah report said blood-soaked bandages were found later at the landing site outside Boudai, about 15 kilometers (9.5 miles) west of Baalbek and about 25 kilometers (16 miles) west of the Syrian border, indicating there were casualties among the Israelis.
Hezbollah officials on the scene said overflights from Israeli jet fighters drowned the clatter of helicopters as they flew into the foothills of the central Lebanese mountains, dropping commandos and two vehicles they used to drive into the village when the Hezbollah fighters intercepted them in a field. The commandos identified themselves as the Lebanese army, but the guerrillas grew suspicious and gunfire erupted.
Israeli helicopters fired missiles as the commandos withdrew and flew out of the area an hour later.
Witnesses saw bandages and syringes at the site. The also saw a destroyed bridge about 500 meters (yards) from the area where the landing took place, after missiles were fired by Israeli aircraft.
Overflights were reported Friday night in the same area.
Israel said late Friday its warplanes have not attacked Lebanon since an Aug. 14 cease-fire halted 34-days of fighting between Hezbollah and Israeli forces.
Baalbek is the birthplace of the Iranian and Syrian-backed Hezbollah. The area in the eastern Bekaa Valley, 100 kilometers (60 miles) north of the Israeli border, is a major guerrilla stronghold.
On Aug. 2, Israeli commandos targeted the Iranian-funded, Hezbollah-run Dar al-Hikma Hospital in Baalbek. The commando assault and Israeli strikes around the ancient town killed 16 people, according to Lebanese police. Baalbek residents said the Israelis took four people as prisoners, and that none were Hezbollah fighters.
Israel had said the building was a Hezbollah base, not a hospital, and that its soldiers captured five guerrilla fighters and killed 10 others before withdrawing.
The U.N. Security Council cease-fire resolution calls for an immediate cessation by Hezbollah of all attacks and the immediate cessation by Israel of all offensive military operations.
In letters to Lebanese and Israeli leaders, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan has warned the two countries against occupying additional territory and told them to refrain from responding to any attacks "except where clearly required in immediate self-defense."
Annan also told Israel and Lebanon that once the cessation of hostilities took effect there must be no firing from the ground, sea or air into the other side's territory or at its forces.
The AP contributed to this report.
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