Israel has launched fresh attacks against Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon in retaliation for the death of its soldiers.

Military aircraft attacked suspected Hezbollah positions in the southern port city of Tyre on Tuesday night, and targeted a village in a mountainous guerrilla stronghold inland, security officials said.

Reports said Apache helicopter gunships fired three missiles at the top floor of an 11-storey building in Tyre, 25km (15 miles) north of the Israeli border.

At least two people were wounded and taken to hospital.

Our correspondent said a suspected Hezbollah official was thought to live in the building.

A Hezbollah official denied any links to the apartment and an Israeli statement said the aircraft had hit a radar station.

In another raid, early on Wednesday, Israeli helicopters and jets fired more than six rockets at the outskirts of Ain Bouswar, a village which has Hezbollah camps nearby, security sources said. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

Counter-attacks

The attack came several hours after Hezbollah guerrillas killed an Israeli soldier, the sixth in two weeks, and an allied militiaman in southern Lebanon.

The group vowed to continue its attacks against Israeli forces in southern Lebanon.

Israel ordered a state of emergency in towns on its northern border with Lebanon and ordered all residents to remain in bomb shelters.

On Monday night, the Israelis bombed three power stations across Lebanon and plunged much of the country into darkness.

The Lebanese Prime Minister, Salim Hoss, described the raids as a disproportionate response to the Hezbollah attacks

But Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak defended Israel's bombing of Lebanese targets, and said he would do "whatever it takes" to save Israeli lives.

US Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright, held a series of urgent telephone conversations with her Syrian counterpart to try to defuse the tension between Israel and Lebanon.

Mrs Albright said she urged the Syrian Foreign Minister, Farouq al-Shara, to use his influence to persuade Hezbollah guerrillas to end their attacks on Israeli forces inside Lebanon.

Our correspondent says there is a fear that the violence may spiral further and destroy all remaining hopes of a resumption of Syrian-Israeli peace talks.

The US said it would send its Middle East envoy Dennis Ross to the region next week and Mrs Albright said peace talks could survive the impact of the latest bloodshed.