Hezbollah fires on Israeli troops

The border incident is the first in the area since last October

Guerrillas from the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah have fired rockets and mortars at Israeli troops in a disputed border area.

Lebanese police said Israeli warplanes responded with a raid on the outskirts of a Lebanese village, Kfarshuba.

The original incident occurred in the Shebaa Farms area.

It came just hours after the killing by Israel of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, spiritual leader of the Palestinian militant group Hamas, in Gaza.

Hezbollah said it had attacked Israeli positions in revenge for Sheikh Yassin's death.

"The Zionists will discover soon that they have committed a very big folly, to add to their series of previous follies," Hizbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah said earlier, after the killing.

Israeli security forces said Hezbollah fired anti-tank missiles and mortar bombs at their troops.

There were no reports of injuries or damage in the attack.

The incident is the first in the area since October 2003.

Hezbollah says the Shebaa Farms area is Lebanese territory, but Israel, backed by the UN, says the farms are on the Syrian side of the border and so are part of the Golan Heights, which it has occupied since 1967.