Israel Repels Guerrilla Infiltration Hezbollah Leader Threatens To Launch Suicide Attacks

Israeli forces launched air and ground attacks Friday to thwart guerrilla infiltration in southern Lebanon, killing at least one rebel.

Lebanese security sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said U.S.-built Apache helicopter gunships strafed suspected Hezbollah guerrilla trails on the edge of the Israeli-occupied security zone in southern Lebanon.

Israeli ground forces, meanwhile, pounded the Wadi Saluqi area, located in a no man’s land separating the security zone from the rest of Lebanon, the sources said.

Wadi Saluqi is near the village of Shaqra, about five miles west of Israel’s northern Galilee panhandle.

Friday’s fighting was the first since Lebanon began parliamentary elections on a region-by-region basis two weeks ago.

It was the sixth air strike in Lebanon since an April cease-fire halted a 16-day Israeli military blitz against the Hezbollah guerrillas, who are fighting to oust Israeli troops from the border zone. At least 165 people, mostly Lebanese civilians, were killed in the Israeli blitz.

The Israeli military command said one Hezbollah terrorist was killed and possibly another one wounded in an encounter with Israeli forces on the edge of the enclave. The command said there were no Israeli casualties.

Hezbollah, or Party of God, said it ambushed an Israeli patrol, but made no reference to casualties among its guerrillas.

In the south, calm generally prevailed as Lebanese living inside the “security zone” streamed north across the front line to vote on Sunday and then returned home.

The front began heating up Thursday with new guerrilla mortar and artillery fire on Israeli forces and their allies. Statements indicating a hardening of Israel’s position on Lebanon added to tension.

Israel has maintained the security zone for nearly 20 years to guard against cross-border attacks from Lebanon.

Meanwhile, Hezbollah’s leader said Friday that his party would carry out suicide attacks if Israel launched any military action against Lebanon or Syria.

Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, secretary-general of the Iranian-backed Shiite Muslim militant group, also vowed to make the Israelis suffer heavy losses in any possible military offensive into Lebanon.

Nasrallah spoke at a parliamentary election rally in eastern Lebanon’s Bekaa valley.