IAF hits 40 Hizbullah targets overnight

IDF says area was used as rocket launching site; residents warned to evacuate the Hizbullah stronghold before strike.

By YAAKOV KATZ
patriot missile 88 (photo credit: )
patriot missile 88
(photo credit: )
The IDF hit some 40 Hizbullah targets in southern Lebanon overnight Saturday, including a road along the Lebanese border with Syria that the IDF said was being used by Damascus to smuggle weapons to Hizbullah. At the same time, the IDF said it was investigating reports that a UNIFIL outpost had been hit by missiles. Two UN peacekeepers were wounded Saturday when an Israeli airstrike hit near their border post in southern Lebanon, The Associated Press reported. The two soldiers from the Indian battalion of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon were "moderately wounded as a result of the impact of an aerial bomb that hit in the vicinity" of their position in the border village of Adaisseh, UNIFIL spokesman Milos Strugar said. Four unarmed officers with the UN observer force in south Lebanon were killed in an Israeli airstrike that destroyed their bunker in southern Lebanon on Tuesday. Meanwhile, the IDF confirmed that an unmanned drone crashed in Lebanese territory on Friday. The army denied the claim made on Hizbullah's Al-Manar television that the Islamist organization had shot down the aircraft. Israel said that the crash was most likely caused by technical problems. The IDF destroyed the remains of the craft so that it would not fall into Hizbullah hands. Since Saturday morning, the IAF said it struck over 60 Hizbullah targets throughout Lebanon including more than 10 rocket launchers, dozens of buildings and weapons warehouses, and several Hizbullah bases. Missiles fired by IAF jets on Friday destroyed three buildings in the village of Kfar Jouz near Nabatiyeh in southern Lebanon. Three people were killed and nine were wounded, including four children, Lebanese security officials said. The raid apparently targeted an apartment belonging to a Hizbullah operative.