The two parties traded artillery fire for an hour

RASHAYA, Lebanon, August 8 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Israeli warplanes bombed the fringes of villages in south Lebanon Friday, August 8, after Hizbullah resistance group attacked Israeli army posts in the occupied Shebaa Farms border region, Lebanese police said.

Israeli fighter bombers swooped four times to fire missiles at targets on the outskirts of Kfarshuba, Hebbariyeh, Slamiyeh and Kfarhamam near the Shebaa Farms, they said.

At the same time, Hizbullah members traded artillery fire with Israeli troops, Agence France-Presse (AFP) said.

Hizbullah pounded Israeli occupation army positions on the slopes of Mount Hermon with dozens of mortar bombs and 107 mm Katyusha rockets, police said earlier, in the first such action for several months.

Hizbullah shelling followed last week's assassination of a Hizbullah official when a bomb ripped apart his car south of Beirut Saturday, August 2. Hezbollah, blaming Israel for the assassination, vowed revenge.

An AFP correspondent saw a large cloud of black smoke rising from one Israeli position, known as Radar, that was the target of about 30 missiles. Two other army posts were also targeted.

Lebanese police, without reporting casualties, said the Israelis used heavy field artillery to strike at areas near several villages facing the Shebaa Farms, which Israel occupied from Syria in the 1967 Middle East war.

The area is claimed by Lebanon, with the consent of Syria.

On May 24, 2000, Hizbullah resistance attacks forced Israel to withdraw its troops from a large territory in southern Lebanon which it had been occupying since 1978.

A significant issue relating to the withdrawal remains unsettled. This relates to the status of certain villages and adjacent land on the eastern side of Alsheikh Mountain, known as the “Shebaa Farms”, which have been occupied by Israel since 1967.

The Lebanese government confirmed to the United Nations that the area is part and parcel of the Lebanese territory and that any Israeli withdrawal must encompass it.

Hizbullah vowed to continue resistance attacks to liberate the occupied Farms.

Very Serious Attack

Meanwhile, a senior Israeli official said Friday that attacks by Hizbullah militiamen against Israeli army positions in southern Lebanon that prompted Israeli reprisals were "very serious".

"This attack is very serious," the official close to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon told AFP on condition of anonymity.

The unnamed Israeli official claimed the attacks may reflect "the frustration of Hizbullah and its foreign backers", in a reference to Iran and Syria, at the relative downturn in attacks against Israel since Palestinian groups called a ceasefire on June 29.

In a separately-related development, Lebanese security forces have detained three men for questioning over the killing of a Hizbollah official in the group's Beirut stronghold last week, a senior Lebanese army source said Friday, according to Israeli daily Ha’aretz.

The three Lebanese were detained overnight after security forces searching the area found sophisticated radio communication equipment in a building near the dead man's home, the source said, without naming the detainees.