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Politics : The Donkey's Inn -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mephisto who wrote (3285)	3/13/2002 1:47:51 AM
From: Mephisto	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 15516

Hizbullah fear after six killed at border : Violence may be spreading to second front Graham Usher in Jerusalem Wednesday March 13, 2002 The Guardian Israel faced the prospect of a second front opening in the Middle East conflict yesterday when gunmen killed at least six Israelis one kilometre from Israel's northern border with Lebanon. It was the worst violence in Israel's western Galilee region since it withdrew from Lebanon in May 2000. The fear is that the increasingly Lebanon-like conflict in the occupied territories may have spread to the north, through the participation of Hizbullah fighters in the Palestinian struggle. Gunmen dressed in Israeli army uniforms opened fire on a bus and two cars on the road linking the town of Shlomi with Kibbutz Metzuha. Among the dead were two women and a police officer. Seven Israelis were wounded in the ambush, one critically. Army and police mounted a massive sweep operation around the kibbutz, killing two gunmen in a 30-minute gun battle in a banana plantation. Three others were thought to be still at large. Vast stretches of Israel's border region were put on high alert, with residents in cities like Kiryat Shomna, 40 kilometres east of the ambush, instructed to remain at home and schoolchildren within their classrooms. "We are all stuck. But we expect anything in Israel these days," said Barul Kadmon, a Metzuha resident. A senior intelligence official had earlier told the Israeli parliament that Hizbullah was preparing a "significant attack" on Israeli border towns. There was confusion last night about the extent of Lebanese involvement in the attack. Lebanese officials and local Israeli police denied any connection. "There is no indication of a terrorist infiltration from the northern border," said Galilee police chief, Yehuda Sluman. But other Israeli army officials reported by Israeli media suggested that while the assailants may have been Palestinians from Israel or the occupied territories, the attack "may have been planned in Lebanon". Their worries were supported by the first claim for the attack, aired on Hizbullah's al Manar TV station. "The Intifada Holy Warriors shifted their operations to northern occupied Palestine [Israel's western Galilee] at noon today by attacking a Zionist bus near the Shlomi settlement," read the newscaster. She said the assailants were Palestinian. The Intifada Holy Warriors are an unknown group. There has been no other claim of responsibility. Tensions between Israel and Hizbullah have been rising in recent days. On Monday Hizbullah fired anti-aircraft missiles near Shlomi, in retaliation, it said, for Israeli violations of Lebanese air space. Israel denied the charge. Later the same day there was an armed exchange after shots were fired on an Israeli army position near the divided village of Ghajar, which straddles the border. And last week Hizbullah's general secretary Sheikh Hussein Nasrallah said his movement was trying to supply Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza with Katyusha rockets, since these "serve the intifada's best interests". He also lambasted the Jordanian security officials who had blocked the supply by arresting Hizbullah members. "Had those weapons reached the hands of the Palestinians, [Israeli prime minister Ariel] Sharon would not have dared enter the [Palestinian refugee] camps," he said. guardian.co.uk