Israeli forces kill 2 Lebanese soldiers, injure 2 UN peacekeepers

By BASSEM MROUE

BEIRUT (AP) — An Israeli airstrike killed two Lebanese soldiers and wounded three other troops on Friday, Lebanon’s military said, an incident that entangles the country’s official army in the escalating conflict between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah militants in Lebanon.

The Lebanese army said the Israeli airstrike hit a building near a military checkpoint in Kafra, Bint Jbeil province in southern Lebanon. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.

The attack on the Lebanese army comes just hours after Israeli troops fired on the headquarters of United Nations peacekeepers in southern Lebanon, injuring two peacekeepers for the second time in as many days.

Lebanon’s army has largely stayed on the sidelines of the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah in hopes of preventing it from spiraling out of control. After Israel troops launched their ground invasion in southern Lebanon, Lebanese troops withdrew some 5 kilometers from their observation posts along the border.

But as Israel escalates its campaign against Hezbollah with waves of heavy airstrikes across Lebanon and a ground invasion at the border, Lebanese troops have increasingly found themselves in the crossfire. An Israeli airstrike killed one Lebanese soldier and wounded another earlier this month.

The U.N. peacekeeping mission in Lebanon, known as UNIFIL, have also been caught in the middle of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah. The international force said explosions struck near an observation tower at its headquarters in Lebanon’s southern town of Naqoura. One of the injured peacekeepers was hospitalized in the nearby city of Tyre while the other received medical care on site, it said.

UNIFIL did not specify the cause of the blasts. But the Israeli military said that soldiers operating in southern Lebanon identified a threat and responded with fire, ultimately hitting a UNIFIL post and inuring the two peacekeepers. The army said its initial review found that the intended target was located some 50 meters from the UNIFIL position.

The U.N. force said it sent reinforcements to the area following another incident earlier Friday in which an Israeli army bulldozer hit the perimeter of a separate UNIFIL position in southern Lebanon while Israeli tanks moved nearby.

The force said that on Thursday, an Israeli tank had fired directly at an observation tower at the UNIFIL headquarters, injuring two Indonesian peacekeepers. It also said Israeli soldiers had attacked a bunker at a base where peacekeepers were sheltering, damaging vehicles and a communication system.

Those events drew sharp criticism from European countries including Italy and France that contribute troops to the U.N. force. Israel has warned peacekeepers to leave positions near where it said Hezbollah militants have launched rockets into northern Israel over the past year of cross-border attacks.

In central Beirut, rescue workers were searching through the rubble of a collapsed building Friday, hours after two Israeli strikes hit the Lebanese capital, killing at least 22 people and wounding dozens.

The air raid was the deadliest attack on central Beirut in over a year of war, hitting two residential buildings in neighborhoods that have swelled with displaced people fleeing Israeli bombardment elsewhere in the country.

Hezbollah’s Al-Manar television and Israeli media said the strikes aimed to kill Wafiq Safa, a top security official with the group. Al-Manar said Safa was not in either building at the time. The Israeli military had no comment on the reports.

Hezbollah has expanded its rocket fire to more populated areas deeper inside Israel. While disrupting life for Israelis, most of Hezbollah’s barrages have not caused casualties. But early Friday, an anti-tank missile fired from Lebanon killed a man from Thailand working on a farm in northern Israel.

In Beirut’s Burj Abi Haidar neighborhood, civil defense members and municipal workers dug through the pile of concrete and twisted metal from a three-story building knocked down by Thursday night’s strike.

In an adjacent building that was badly damaged, Ahmad al-Khatib stood in the apartment of his in-laws where he, his wife, Marwa Hamdan, and their 2 ½-year-old daughter, Ayla, suffered injuries. He had just picked up his wife from work and she was performing the evening Muslim prayers at home when the blast hit.

“The world suddenly turned upside down and darkness prevailed,” said the 42-year-old, tears running down his cheeks. He pulled his daughter out from under the debris of a wall that collapsed in a bedroom. Al-Khatib, who works for the postal service. said he found the force of the explosion had thrown his wife against a wall and a piece of metal had hit her in the head.

“I looked in her face and shouted, ‘Say something!’” he said, but she only responded with sounds of pain. His wife remains in the ICU at a Beirut hospital. His daughter suffered only minor injuries.

Mohammed Tarhani said he had moved in with his brother nearby in the neighborhood after fleeing around southern Lebanon to escape airstrikes the past weeks. His children were out on the veranda, and he was in the living room when the strike hit.

“We rushed out to look for the children,” he said. “Where is one supposed to go now?”