Israel Matzav

Breaking: Lebanese troops open fire on IDF units on border

This is breaking news from the Jerusalem Post's Israel Alert Service - no link yet:

Lebanese troops opened fire on IDF units along Israel's northern border (between Israel and Lebanon) this evening.

IDF Troops responded by firing two tank rounds at the Lebanese position. Several Lebanese soldiers were reportedly wounded.

More when I have it....

UPDATE 11:50 PM

YNet has more details:

IDF and Lebanese forces exchanged fire on Israel's northern border near Avivim late Wednesday night. Israeli soldiers had been combing an area for Hizbullah explosives. Explosives were found in that area earlier this week.

The incident began after Lebanese forces fired warning shots and were warned by the IDF that they would respond to any further gunfire. After the shooting continued an IDF tank fired two shells in the direction of the gunfire. No IDF injuries have been reported. (Note that YNet's report actually says no injuries, but the JPost item I cited above says that there were Lebanese injuries).

UPDATE 11:55 PM

Israel Radio is reporting that the firing took place about half an hour ago and has since stopped. They say that there are no Israeli injuries but there are injuries on the Lebanese side and that the Israeli troops are combing the area between the border fence and the international border for explosives in the same area where, as I noted above, explosives were found earlier this week.

By the way, the picture above is from the IDF spokesperson and is of one of the bombs found earlier in the week on the border. Note that it was camouflaged as a boulder.

UPDATE 12:01 AM

Israel Radio is reporting that the IDF says that it will NOT cross the border into Lebanon.

UPDATE 2:12 AM

Israel's Army Radio is reporting, based on UNIFIL reports, that at least five Lebanese soldiers were killed or wounded in tonight's shooting.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 11:45 PM