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Hizbollah says captures two Israeli soldiers

Posted on: Wednesday, 12 July 2006, 04:48 CDT

By Karamallah Daher

MARJAYOUN, Lebanon (Reuters) - Hizbollah guerrillas said they had captured two Israeli soldiers in cross-border attacks from Lebanon on Wednesday in which three Israelis were also reported killed, sharply raising Middle East tensions.

Israeli ground forces crossed into Lebanon to search for the captured soldiers, Israeli Army Radio said. It said many troops and aircraft were taking part in searches across the border.

Israel has already launched a military offensive in the Gaza Strip after Palestinian militants captured a soldier on June 25 in a cross-border raid.

"Fulfilling its pledge to liberate the (Arab) prisoners and detainees, the Islamic Resistance ... captured two Israeli soldiers at the border with occupied Palestine," the Syrian- and Iranian-backed Hizbollah said in a statement.

"The two captives were transferred to a safe place," it said, without stating what condition the soldiers were in.

The Israeli army said only that there were casualties in the clash and that two soldiers were believed to be missing.

"We do not confirm the reports, but there is a fear they were abducted," an Israeli army spokeswoman told Reuters.

The Israeli rescue service ZAKA said three Israelis were killed and eight wounded in the Hizbollah attacks. The identities of the dead were not immediately clear.

Hizbollah earlier fired dozens of Katyusha rockets and mortar bombs at Israeli border posts and a town, Israeli and Lebanese security sources said.

Israel troops retaliated, shelling the outskirts of four Lebanese border villages and trading fire with guerrillas.

Israeli aircraft also bombed three bridges in southern Lebanon. Two Lebanese civilians were killed and a Lebanese soldier was wounded in the raid on the coastal Qasmiyeh bridge, Lebanese security sources said.

EMERGENCY CABINET MEETING

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert called a special cabinet session for 7 p.m. (1600 GMT). The announcement from his office did not mention the Hizbollah claim to have seized the soldiers.

"These are difficult days for Israel and its citizens," Olmert told reporters after Hizbollah's announcement.

"There are elements, to the north and the south, that are threatening our stability and trying to test our determination," he said. "They will fail and pay a heavy price for their actions."

Hizbollah supporters set off fire crackers and distributed sweets in the streets of Beirut after the Islamist group issued its claim. Similar scenes were reported across Lebanon.

In Gaza, Israel targeted Hamas guerrilla commanders in an air strike that killed six Palestinians and destroyed a building where the militants were believed to be meeting.

The Israeli military said the air raid wounded Mohammad Deif, leader of the governing Hamas's armed wing.

It coincided with an armored sweep into the central Gaza Strip that broadened an offensive aimed at freeing the captured soldier in Gaza, Corporal Gilad Shalit, and halting cross-border rocket fire.

A spokesman for Hamas's Izz el-Deen al-Qassam Brigades, one of three groups whose seizure of Shalit led Israel to launch its first ground operations in Gaza since quitting the territory last year, denied Deif was hurt.

Israel has vowed to continue its Gaza operation, which has already killed more than 65 Palestinians, until militants free Shalit and stop launching makeshift rockets over the border.

Israel has rejected calls from Hamas for a prisoner swap for the 19-year-old tank gunner, whose seizure has triggered the worst fighting between Israelis and Palestinians since 2004.

(Additional reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi in Gaza, Dan Williams at Kissufim and Jeffrey Heller in Jerusalem)

Source: REUTERS

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