| Israeli warplanes draw
Lebanese anti-aircraft fire TYRE, Lebanon -
Four Israeli warplanes violated Lebanese air space Tuesday drawing anti-aircraft fire from
the army, Lebanese police said.
The Israeli army swiftly retaliated by firing three mortar rounds across the border
without causing casualties, the police said.
The aircraft broke the sound barrier as they swooped low over the southern port city of
Tyre in the latest in a catalogue of intrusions that have drawn UN criticism.
The new overflights came as Shiite militant group Hezbollah celebrated a landslide victory
in parliamentary elections in southern Lebanon on Sunday.
Hezbollah leaders hailed the victory as a popular rebuff to US- and French-led pressure
for the disarmament of all Lebanese militias.
The group has said that it plans to continue its fight against Israel until the Jewish
state relinquishes the disputed Shebaa Farms district, captured from Syria in 1967 but now
claimed by Lebanon with Syrian blessing.
But its foreign relations chief Ali Darmush told a Paris news conference Monday that
Hezbollah would "not hand over its weapons even if Israel withdraws from the Shebaa
Farms."
He cited the continuing threat from Israeli violations of Lebanese airspace as the main
reason. |
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