Israel strikes south Lebanon

Israeli attacks killed eight Hezbollah fighters this year

Israeli aircraft have attacked suspected guerrilla positions in southern Lebanon, killing a Hezbollah fighter.

Hezbollah confirmed the fighter, 20-year-old Mohammad Akhdar, was killed when helicopters fired rockets at an area just outside the zone Israel occupies in Lebanon.

Casualties this year

8 Hezbollah fighters killed, 7 injured

18 SLA militia killed, 27 injured

7 Israeli soldiers killed, 22 injured

On Thursday, Hezbollah artillery attacks killed a soldier from the Israeli-backed South Lebanon Army (SLA) and wounded others in the zone.

Israel formally notified the United Nations earlier this week that it would withdraw from Lebanon by early July.

Rockets

Israelis say two aircraft fired four rockets at an area near the village of Maifadoun just north of the central sector of Israel's occupation zone.

Hezbollah has been fighting for the Israeli withdraw from Lebanon

Lebanese police claimed about 10 missiles had been fired.

In a separate attack, a US-made Apache gunship fired a missile at the centre of the southern Lebanese town of Nabatiyeh.

The missile did not explode but damaged shops and caused panic among residents.

Lebanese authorities said the missile could have caused heavy casualties had it detonated in the populated area.

But they did not know what prompted the raid on Nabatiyeh or what the target was.

They noted that several members of Hezbollah live in the area.