Israeli war planes bomb Lebanon in strike at Hizbollah

Israeli planes carried out air strikes over Lebanon yesterday evening, in the worst flare-up of violence across the border for months.

There were no initial reports of casualties in yesterday's aerial bombardments. Israel said they were a reply to Lebanese Hizbollah guerrillas firing an anti-tank missile at an Israeli bulldozer that had crossed the border into Lebanon on Monday, killing one Israeli soldier and wounding a second.

Yesterday's events come after Israeli air strikes on Syria in October last year, just 14 miles from Damascus, that threatened a dangerous widening of the Middle East conflict. Israel again threatened Syria, which has considerable power in Lebanon.

Israel "holds Syria directly responsible" for Hizbollah's actions, said Major Sharon Feingold, a spokeswoman for the Israeli army, and "will not tolerate the current situation" in which she claimed Hizbollah is attempting "to escalate the situation in the north".

The Israeli Foreign Minister, Silvan Shalom, said: "If President [Bashar] Assad thinks he's going to use Hizbollah as the long arm in the fight against us, he should know that our response will be very clear."

Israel claimed the targets of yesterday's air strikes were two Hizbollah bases used to store weapons and "stage attacks" on Israel.

In October last year, it had it claimed that the target in Syria was a training base used by Palestinians; it later emerged the base was empty and had been disused for many years.

Reports from Lebanon said the targets of yesterday's air raids appeared to be near Alman, a village in the Litani river area in south Lebanon, and near Zibqine, a village east of Tyre. Lebanese officials reportedly confirmed three air-to-surface missile strikes, and there were reports of explosions in the Bekaa Valley.

The Israeli army first tried to claim that the bulldozer had come under fire while still inside Israeli territory, and that it had never entered Lebanon. Hizbollah said its guerrillas fired on the bulldozer because it had crossed into Lebanese territory. But Brigadier General Yair Golan, commander of the Galilee division, admitted yesterday that Hizbollah's version of events was true, and that the bulldozer had crossed "one or two metres" into Lebanese territory.

The bulldozer was clearing explosives that the Israeli military had discovered planted alongside a military road on the Israeli side of the border. The army accused Hizbollah of planting the bombs.

Hizbollah fought against the Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon and declared victory when Israeli forces withdrew in 2000. But Hizbollah is continuing to resist what it says is Israel's continuing occupation of a small strip of Lebanese land at the Shebaa Farms. Israel claims the land is originally Syrian, not Lebanese, and refuses to end its occupation.

The Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, has come under criticism in Israel for his reluctance to hold peace talks with Syria. The flare-up of violence with Hizbollah, which is blamed on Syria, may have come at a convenient time for Mr Sharon.