Israeli troops shoot two Lebanese soldiers at border

PanARMENIAN.Net - Israel's army says its troops have shot two Lebanese soldiers, hours after a Lebanese army sniper killed an Israeli soldier, the Guardian reports.

Army spokeswoman Lt Libby Weiss says the shooting took place in the early hours of Monday, Dec 16 morning. She said Israeli forces identified "suspicious movement" along the border and shot two members of Lebanon's armed forces.

Weiss said the shooting took place near to where a Lebanese army sniper killed an Israeli soldier late on Sunday. Weiss had no details on the condition of the Lebanese soldiers.

Calls to Lebanese army officials went unanswered. The UN peacekeeping force along the Israel-Lebanon said it had no information about a shooting on Monday.

Speaking on Sunday evening in response to the death of the Israeli soldier, Israel's defense spokesman, Lieutenant Colonel Peter Lerner, said: "The IDF has protested this outrageous breach of Israel's sovereignty with Unifil and has heightened its state of preparedness along the border. We will not tolerate aggression against the state of Israel, and maintain the right to exercise self-defense against perpetrators of attacks against Israel and its civilians."

In the past year, six Israeli soldiers have been injured in explosions along the Lebanese border although it was not clear whether the incidents were accidents.

In a separate incident, a Lebanese soldier was killed on Sunday when a bomb was thrown at the checkpoint he was manning outside the southern Lebanon city of Sidon.

The shootings raise the possibility of renewed fighting in the volatile area, which has remained mostly quiet since a month-long summer war in 2006.