BEIRUT, Lebanon, (AKI) - A spokesman for the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah on Wednesday denied his group was involved in an overnight missile attack against the Israeli town of Kiryat Shmona - a strike which triggered a series of Israeli reprisal bombings in Lebanon. "No missiles were launched from our positions against the Israelis," Hezbollah's spokesman in Beirut, Husein Nabulsi told Adnkronos International (AKI). Four people were slightly wounded in the missile attack against the Israeli town.

"The news is true but we don't know who launched the Katyusha rockets, maybe those who have an interest in maintaining tensions high in the region and who want to provide the Israelis with a pretext to attack Hezbollah," Nabulsi said.

On Wednesday Israeli warplanes carried out a dawn raid at a training camp run by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine - General Command (PFLP-GC) near the town of Naame, some 20 kilometres south of the Lebanese capital Beirut. Local reports said an unspecified number of people were injured in the attack against the PFLP-GC, a Syrian-backed Palestinian militant group.

"This [the Israeli strike] confirms that Hezbollah was not involved. When the Israelis think we are behind an attack they don't hesitate to hit us," Nabulsi told AKI.

"But I don't exclude the possibility that Lebanon-based agents paid by Tel Aviv launched the missiles last night. For sure they want to provoke us but we will not respond," he added.

The commander of Israel's northern military forces General Udi Adam, said that the dawn raid was in response to the missile attack against Qiriyat Shemona, which he said was carried out by Palestinian groups based in Lebanon.

"It wouldn't surprise me if Hezbollah gave its blessing to the operation," Asam added.

But Nabulsi denied any military co-operation between Hezbollah and the Palestinian groups based in Lebanon, saying that they were only linked by "friendship".