Region | Palestinian Territories
War clouds over Lebanon
Lebanese Hezbollah fighters have captured two Israeli soldier, killed at least eight others and injured several in an attack the group leader described as its "natural right".
- By Jumana Al Tamimi, GCC & Middle East Editor
- Published: 23:33 May 3, 2009
Dubai: Lebanese Hezbollah fighters on Wednesday captured two Israeli soldier, killed at least eight others and injured several in an attack the group leader described as its "natural right".
Israel said it considered the attack "an act of war" and warned of a "painful" response.
A Hezbollah militant was also killed in the raid.
"What we did today ... is the only feasible path to free detainees from Israeli jails," Hezbollah leader Shaikh Hassan Nasrallah said in a press conference in Beirut.
"Indirect negotiations and a [prisoners] swap" is the solution to defuse the tension over the capture, he added.
Nasrallah stressed that the group has "no intention of escalation".
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said he held the Beirut government fully responsible as warplanes, gunboats and artillery pounded Lebanon, hitting Hezbollah and civilian targets, including a bridge linking the capital with the south. Two Lebanese civilians were killed in the Israeli raid.
"This was an act of war without any provocation on the sovereign territory... of the state of Israel," Olmert said, as Israel lodged a formal protest with the United Nations.
Late last night Olmert was chairing an emergency cabinet meeting set to approve a reprisals on Lebanon recommended by the security cabinet, Raanan Gissin, a senior official in Olmert's office, said.
Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice also urged Syria "to use its influence to support a positive outcome" and called on all sides to act with restraint after what Israel described as an act of war by Lebanon.
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