Israeli jets blasted a Palestinian militant group's base in Lebanon early yesterday, lightly wounding two guerrillas, hours after rockets hit a northern Israeli border town.
In their deepest strike into Lebanon in 18 months, the Israeli planes attacked a base south of Beirut of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, a small, Syrian-backed group that has been fighting the Jewish state for decades.
"This is in response to the firing of projectile rockets last night toward Israeli communities," the Israeli military said, referring to the attack on the northern Israeli town of Kiryat Shmona that damaged property but did not inflict casualties.
PHOTO: AP
The Israeli military said it viewed such attacks with "extreme severity" and held Lebanon responsible.
Later yesterday, Israeli warplanes flew low over southern Lebanon and the western Bekaa Valley in presumed reconnaissance flights that drew anti-aircraft fire from the Lebanese army, Lebanese security officials said.
Major General Udi Adam, head of the Israeli army's northern command, warned Israel would retaliate if there were any more rocket fire from Lebanon.
"The main message that we passed, and we are trying to give, is that the Lebanese government must take responsibility for what happens in its territory," Adam said.
"If Kiryat Shmona residents don't sleep quietly, then the residents of Beirut won't sleep quietly. This is an unequivocal message."
Witnesses reported warplanes roared over the PFLP-GC guerrilla base at Naameh, a hilltop base overlooking the Mediterranean 7km south of Beirut, and the sound of two booms were heard.
Lebanese army troops at a checkpoint near Naameh confirmed the airstrike and sealed off the area.
The PFLP-GC commander in Lebanon, Anwar Raja, said that two guerrillas were slightly wounded in the strike, which caused "limited" material damage and shattered the windows of nearby houses.
He denied that the PFLP-GC was responsible for the firing of Katyushas on northern Israel.
A photographer at the site said that the strike targeted an entrance to a tunnel, leaving it almost blocked by stones and rubble. The PFLP-GC base consists of a maze of concrete fortified tunnels in a hill.
Israeli warplanes struck the same base in June last year in retaliation for a rocket attack on an Israeli naval boat. Jets also staged a "mock raid" -- low runs without dropping bombs -- on the same base a month later.
Yesterday's air raid was the second on Naameh since the Israeli troop withdrawal from Lebanon in 2000.
The airstrike was launched after three rockets landed in a residential area of Kiryat Shmona. The Israeli army said the rockets damaged some property but caused no injuries.
Lebanon's Hezbollah militant group and the mainstream Fatah Palestinian faction denied involvement in firing late Tuesday on Kiryat Shmona.
It was not clear whether the explosions were caused by katyusha rockets or mortar fire, but Israel's Channel Two television showed the remains of what appeared to be a katyusha, along with pictures of holes in the ground and in the side of a home.
Last month, Israeli fighter jets attacked a command post of the Hezbollah guerrilla group in south Lebanon -- a day after Hezbollah rocket and mortar attacks wounded 11 Israeli soldiers and damaged a house in an Israeli border community.
While fighting on the Lebanon-Israel border has dropped since the Israeli troop withdrawal in 2000, the area remains tense and Hezbollah frequently targets Israeli troops in the disputed Chebaa Farms area. But attacks on Israelis also were blamed on radical Palestinian groups, who remains active in southern Lebanon.
The PFLP-GC's commander, Ahmed Jibril, whose group refuses to recognize Israel, has his headquarters in Damascus. But his group maintains military bases in Lebanon, where it is accused of taking orders from Syria in support of its policies in Lebanon.
Relations between the two Arab neighbors have been tense in recent months after the Syrian army withdrew from Lebanon after international pressure and street protests in Beirut in the aftermath of the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri.
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