Northern Command officer: IDF controls sec. strip

Senior Northern Command officer Brig.-Gen. Alon Friedman said on Thursday that the IDF controlled the entire area between Rosh Hanikra and Ras Baide in the area that once constituted the security strip when Israel occupied southern Lebanon until 2000. He told Israel Radio, that IDF troops enter the towns, which are mostly abandoned, to strike Hizbullah operatives, before leaving the towns again. Brig.-Gen. Friedman asserted that there were hardly any rockets launched from areas under Israeli control, except an occasional sporadic launch. He stated that the rockets fired on Thursday were launched from sites north of the Litani River.